Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat freed the Haryana native, awarding him seven days of imprisonment, which he had already undergone during the trial.
"In my opinion, any further sentence would be a travesty of justice. The girl has yet not patched up with her parents. Her parents have not talked to her or visited her after her elopement with the convict.
"So, further imprisonment of convict would lead the girl and the three innocent children to starvation and there would be nobody to look after them," the judge said.
Freeing the youth, the court noted that at the time of the incident in 2006, he was "in a fix" as the father of the girl he loved, was arranging her marriage with someone else and she had insisted him to marry her after elopement.
"The convict, it appears, was in a fix. Either he had to lose his beloved and be a mute spectator while she was being given in marriage to somebody else or to forget everything else and run away with his beloved even though she was below 15 years of age.
"Ultimately as always happens in such case, the heart won and he performed a runaway marriage with a less than 15-year-old girl whom he loved more than anything else," the judge said.
The court also noted the statement of the girl, now 21, who said she had insisted on marrying him after elopement and was now leading a happy, married life.
"We have been blessed with three children. I am still living with the accused as his wife. I am happy with him. I do not want his prosecution as he did not either entice me or force me at any point of time. Whatever has been done between us was at my insistence and with my consent," she had added. (More)
