Forced sexual relations between married couples not rape: Delhi Court

New Delhi - Sexual relations between a legally wedded husband and wife, “even if forcible, is not rape”, a Delhi court has said while acquitting a youth who was accused of marrying a 21-year-old girl after serving her a sedative- laced drink and raping her. “It is evident that the prosecutrix (girl) had willingly and in full senses solemnised her marriage with the accused and the marriage was registered in the office of Registrar of Marriages, Ghaziabad, on March 4, 2013. The parties engaged in physical relations with each other after the marriage. [caption id=“attachment_1519331” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The court’s judgement may not go down well with women’s rights activists .AFP[/caption] “The girl was more than 21-years-old at the time. Thus the girl and accused being legally-wedded husband and wife and the girl being a major, the sexual intercourse between the two, even if forcible, is not rape and no culpability can be fastened upon the youth,” Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat said while absolving the youth of the charge of rape. In the FIR, the girl had alleged that she came in contact with the accused, a UP resident, while working with a coaching centre here in 2013. She had further told police that one day, the accused along with his father had given her a spiked drink which made her lose consciousness whereupon they took her to “the (said) registrar’s office at Ghaziabad and got the marriage documents signed by her”. Thereafter, the girl had alleged, the accused committed rape upon her and left her with the threat that in case she disclosed the incident to anybody, they would not spare her. She had also said that the accused in September, 2013, had even committed unnatural sex with her on several occasions. The court, however, turned down the girl’s allegations and said, “There is no clinching or convincing evidence on record to show that the accused had administered any stupefying substance to the prosecutrix before taking her to the Ghaziabad court. “The prosecutrix has nowhere deposed in her testimony that the accused had committed (unnatural sex) with her. The prosecution has, therefore, failed to establish the guilt of the accused.” During the trial, the accused denied all the allegations levelled against him and pleaded innocence saying the marriage was solemnised in February, 2011, but he was framed in the case as the girl’s parents were against it. PTI