Court discharges man in rape case

A city court has discharged a 28-year-old man from charges of allegedly raping a 35- year-old widow on the pretext of marriage, noting that their relationship was consensual and she was a mature woman, who knew its implications.

Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Kumar passed the order after observing that “there was no compulsion for the woman to establish physical relations without ensuring that the accused was willing to marry her”. 

“The prosecutrix (woman) is a mature lady and, as such, it cannot be said that she was incapable of understanding the nature and implications of the acts which she consented to. Her consent to physical relations, if any, was an act of conscious reason,” the court said.