New Delhi: A man has been acquitted of the charges of raping a woman on the pretext of marrying her by a Delhi court as they later got married and also have a child out of their wedlock.
Additional Sessions Judge T R Naval freed the Uttar Pradesh resident of the charges of rape and theft on the ground that the woman has not supported the prosecution case.
"I have come to the conclusion that prosecution has failed to prove its case against the accused," the fast track court said.
The court noted the woman, an employee of a government hospital here where the accused was also working, was happily residing with the man and does not wish to pursue the case.
According to the prosecution, the man started raping the 21-year-old woman on the pretext of marrying her from February 2009 and continued to do so till May 2011. He had also allegedly stolen her gold articles.
The court acquitted the man after the woman turned hostile and changed her statement, saying she had not told the police that she was raped by the accused.
"In the year 2011, she got married with the accused and thereafter a child, who is now aged about 10 months, was born out of their wedlock. She wanted to live with the accused and she did not want to pursue the present case in view of their matrimonial life," the judge noted.
The woman had told the court that she was working in the same hospital where the man was also employed and they fell in love. She had said that they developed physical relations after the man had assured her that he wanted to marry her.
After maintaining physical relations for a long time on the pretext of marriage, the man left for his village and someone informed her that he had gone to get married there, she said, adding that on the asking of her sister and brother- in-law, she lodged a complaint against the man of having raped her.
PTI
