A court here in Maharashtra has awarded seven years' rigorous imprisonment to a 32-year-old man for raping a woman on the pretext of marriage.
District Judge G P Shirsat, in his order on Thursday, also imposed a fine of Rs 35,000 on the accused, Navinkumar Premshankar Tiwari, while pronouncing him guilty under Indian Penal Code Section 376 (rape) and provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The judge ordered that out of the total fine amount, Rs 30,000 be given as compensation to the 30-year-old victim, who belongs to a Scheduled Caste.
The accused's parents, Premshankar Tiwari (56) and Sunayana Tiwari (50), who were also tried in the case, were acquitted after the court gave them benefit of doubt.
Additional Public Prosecutor Rekha Hiwrale told the court that the accused, a resident of Khopoli in neighbouring Raigad district, and the victim worked together since 2008 in a catering firm at Kurla in Mumbai where they became friends and got into a relationship.
The accused promised to marry the woman following which both of them started living together in a rented room in Diva area of Thane. However, they later separated and returned to the homes of their respective parents.
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During the time they were together, the accused raped the woman on several occasions on the pretext of marriage, the prosecution said, adding that he also took Rs 95,000 and items like gold jewellery and mobile phone from the victim.
On March 8, 2014, the accused called the victim to his house in Khopoli where his parents were present. The three abused the woman over her caste and beat her, Hiwrale said.
The accused also refused to marry the woman following which she filed a police complaint.
In his order, the judge said the prosecution has proved the charges against Navinkumar Tiwari beyond reasonable doubts and "he needs to be convicted".
"The accused gave assurance of marriage to the victim as well as her parents, he then established physical relations with her and also grabbed her money. But, he later refused to marry her on the ground that she belonged to a Scheduled Caste," the judge observed.
"The facts and circumstances clearly show that the accused gave false assurance of marriage to the victim and continuously exploited her only for satisfaction of sex and lust," he said in the order.