KOCHI: Acquitting an accused in a rape case, the Kerala High Court has observed that even an ordinary or an uneducated woman cannot be lured into sex more than once or twice on the promise of marriage.
The court issued the order while allowing the petition filed by an Ernakulam native challenging the Ernakulam sessions court order, awarding seven years imprisonment in a rape case.
He was booked on charges of rape based on a complaint by a 27-year-old engineering graduate, alleging that he had sexual intercourse on the promise that he would marry her.
The prosecution case was that the accused enticed the woman, under a false promise that he would marry her, took her to a hotel room in Ernakulam where he subjected her to sexual intercourse with force
and thereafter on three occasions at her residence.
It was alleged that when he retracted from the promise, the woman attempted suicide in 2008, and later complained alleging rape.
The court held that this is a clear case of consent and that the sexual intercourse was not at any time vitiated by any false promise.
"An analysis of the evidence given by the woman will show that
she had intercourse with the accused on many occasions at her residence.
Even an ordinary or an uneducated woman cannot be deceived more than once or twice on the promise of marriage," the court observed.
"The woman is a well educated with a degree in engineering. It was quite unbelievable that she could be easily deceived on the promise of marriage on many occasions. Three or four instances were
at her residence when her parents were away. Much probe was not required in this case to find that the sexual intercourse which the woman had with the accused on many occasions at her house was with her consent," it said.
The court also considered a letter written by the victim proposing marriage before the filing of the complaint.
"The letter clearly shows that she had an illicit affair with the accused and as part of this affair and unholy union, she had sexual intercourse with him on many occasions. Consent for sexual intercourse is well discernible from the letter admitted by the woman. During trial, she admitted the authorship of the communication. This will show that she was not in fact taken to any hotel room, as she alleges in the complaint, and that she happened to make a complaint, and even gave a statement during the investigation only as instructed or tutored by her counsel," the court stated.