A man has been acquitted of the charges of raping an 18-year-old girl by a Delhi court after he married her and accepted their child, born out of their love relation.
Additional Sessions Judge T S Kashyap freed the north-east Delhi resident noting that the girl turned hostile and told the court that she was in love with the accused and had maintained physical relations with him but when he refused to marry her, she lodged the rape case against him.
"Keeping in view the fact that the girl herself has not confirmed her allegation of rape and threat by the accused in her examination in the court...She has specifically deposed that she was in a love affair with the accused...But when the accused refused to marry her, she reported the matter to police.
"Now her marriage with the accused has been solemnised. He has also accepted her newly born child and now she is living in his house with his (first) wife and that she does not want to proceed with this case, the prosecution has failed to prove the charges against the accused and, therefore, the accused is entitled for acquittal," the court said.
While delivering the verdict, the court noted that the man and the girl got married on August 10 as per Muslim customs and they have filed their marriage certificate on record. He was granted interim bail during which he married the girl.
According to prosecution, on March 14, the girl along with her mother had gone to Seemapuri police station for lodging FIR against the accused, who was her landord, alleging that he had raped her due to which she became pregnant.
The girl had told police that the man had forcibly taken her to his room and raped her when his wife and children were not at home. He had also threatened her not to disclose the incident to anyone, she had said.
The girl, however, changed her statement in the court saying she was in love with the accused and had indulged in physical relations with him on her own will due to which she became pregnant.
She said she do not wish to proceed against the man as now he has agreed to marry her and to accept their baby boy, born in June. She also denied that she had told her age as 14 years to police.
