A 22-year-old youth has been sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for raping a married woman, who was his friend, by a Delhi court which said that he "misused the trust reposed by her in him" and "kept her under threat".
Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja handed down the jail term to Sadar Bazar resident Bilal Qureshi for offences under sections 376 [2(n)] (raping same woman repeatedly), 366 (abduction) and 506 (criminal intimidation) and also imposed a fine of Rs 7,500 on him.
The court directed that the woman be paid adequate compensation under the Victim Compensation Scheme by the Delhi Legal Aid Services, while noting that she had lent Rs 50,000 to Qureshi which he had not returned.
"Deposition of the woman clearly reveals that she had been put in a rather difficult situation by Qureshi, who had not only taken money from her, of which her husband was unaware of, but also had established physical relations with her against her will by threatening to disclose the same to her husband.
"Under this fear, the woman continued to be sexually exploited by him," the court said, while convicting Qureshi.
"The woman, who was having friendly relations with Qureshi gave him Rs 50,000 in good faith and out of their friendship. It is he who misused the trust reposed by her in him and instead of returning money to her, exploited the situation in which he had put the woman and established physical relations with her," it said.
The court also noted that the fact that she did not tell her husband anything cannot be said to imply that no such incident had occurred or it was with her consent.
"Rather, it appears from the complete reading of the testimony of victim that she had no option but to remain quiet as she was being kept under threat by Qureshi and her consent in these circumstances, cannot be said to be free or voluntary," it said.
According to the prosecution, on February 28, 2014, the woman told the police that Qureshi, who was her friend, had borrowed money from her and when she demanded it back, he raped her repeatedly on several occasions.
