The Karnataka High Court has quashed criminal cases of ‘rape and cheating’ against a man after observing that the cases were registered on the complaint of a woman, who was found to be in the habit of trapping men into relationships using social media platforms and later registering cases against them alleging having sex with her on false promise of marriage.
The Court also observed, “If the trial of such cases is permitted to continue, then it would be putting a premium on the activities of the complainant woman and her effort to abuse the process of law over and over.”
Justice M. Nagaprasanna made the order while allowing a petition filed by one Girinath questioning the two different complaints lodged against him by one Rajeshwari in Bengaluru and Davangere based on same kind of charges.
The court also took into account from the recorded materials that the complainant had entered into a similar consensual relationship with one Dhanush in the year 2013 and later lodged a criminal case against him, which eventually ended in his acquittal in 2016 after she turned hostile.
From the supported materials of the complaints against the petitioner, the court noted that the petitioner and the complainant met each other through Facebook in 2013 and entered into a live-in relationship that lasted till 2019.
Since the complainant herself admitted to being in a consensual physical relationship with the petitioner till 2019, the Court said, “Fading away of intimacy after six years of consensual intercourse cannot mean that it would become ingredients of Section 375 (rape) of Indian Penal Code” and continuation of proceedings against the petitioner would run foul of a plethora of judgments given by the apex court in such relationships.
After filing the first complaint against the petitioner in Bengaluru, the woman also went to Davangere, the native place of the petitioner, and filed another complaint claiming of ‘rape and cheating’ her after filing of the first case.
The petitioner had alleged that it’s the complainant woman’s habit to make men friends through social media platforms and entering into relationship with them and further blackmailing them on the name of police complaints.
Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/hc-quashes-rape-case-against-man-lodged-by-woman-who-was-in-the-habit-of-luring-men-into-relationship/article67172639.ece