The accused had contended physical relations between him and the woman were consensual
A Delhi court has discharged a 37-year-old man, accused of raping his 63-year-old ex-wife, a German national, saying there was an inexplicable delay of three years in lodging FIR in the case.
Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Kumar, while discharging the accused, a Delhi resident, also noted that there was no medical evidence to support the allegations of rape against him.
"The delay of one or two days in lodging the FIR may be bonafide, reasonable and justified in the facts and circumstances of a given case. However, in the present case there is a delay of about three years in lodging FIR," the judge said.
"After examining the documentary as well as oral evidence ...it is not showing that accused committed the alleged offences for which he is being prosecuted because there is no valid justification for delay in lodging the FIR.
The court further said the evidentiary value of medical evidence is zero and the consent was obtained on pretext of marriage, so it cannot be said to result from misconception of fact in the facts and circumstances of this case."
"I am of the opinion that the materials placed before the court do not disclose the grave suspicion against the accused for framing a charge against him for committing offence punishable under section 376 of the IPC," the judge said.
The court's order came on a complaint of the German woman alleging that she came to India in 2001 and met the accused in a hotel at Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh and they married each other in 2005.
However, they got divorced in 2007, but later in September 2012, they met again and the accused established physical relation with her against her consent with a promise to remarry her, but again ditched her, the complaint said.
An FIR in the case was lodged in 2015 on the complaint of the woman under sections 376 (rape) and 420 (cheating) of India Penal Code.
The court discharged him under section 376 but directed him to appear before another magisterial court to be tried for the offence of cheating.
The accused, while denying the rape allegations, had contended that the physical relations between them after divorce were consensual.