Man acquitted in rape case, Delhi court says it was live-in relationship

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has acquitted a man, who was jailed for 10 years by a trial court for raping a woman here in 2011, observing that she was in a live-in relationship with him and her statement regarding the alleged incident was suffering from "serious infirmities".

The court set aside the order passed by the trial court in 2013 in which it had convicted the man for alleged offences under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and had awarded him a 10-year jail along with a fine of Rs 15,000.

"From the above documents (referred in the judgement), which have not been considered in right perspective by trial court, it is clear that the prosecutrix (woman), who had been living alone away from her husband in Delhi, was in live-in relationship with the appellant (man)," Justice Pratibha Rani said.

While allowing the appeal filed by the man against his conviction, the high court said that "deliberate improvements" were made by the woman on material points related to the case and her testimony does not inspire confidence.

According to the police, an FIR was lodged on the basis of woman's statement in which she had alleged that the incident took place on the intervening night of January 13-14, 2011, when she was alone at her house and was mourning the death of her daughter who had expired a few days back.

She had claimed that the door of her house was open and the accused entered her room and raped her.

The accused had denied the allegations levelled against him and during arguments on the appeal, his counsel said that the woman was in a live-in relationship with his client.

The lawyer argued that prior to the incident, the woman had borrowed Rs 11,000 from the man and after he insisted on repayment, she falsely implicated him in the case.

Opposing the appeal, the police had argued that the man had committed the crime when the woman was alone in her house.

In its verdict, the high court noted that the woman had changed her version at every stage and the man was well known to her.

"She admitted having received Rs 11,000 on October 31, 2010 i.e. much prior to the alleged rape incident on the night intervening January 13-14, 2011. Thus, her statement that this amount was paid to her for changing her statement is falsified from the record," the court said.