BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court quashed criminal proceedings against a man, based on complaints of rape and cheating by a woman, after befriending him on social media. She alleged that he raped her on the pretext of marriage.
Taking note of a similar complaint filed by her against another man, the court said: “It becomes a classic case where the complainant is seeking relationships with people on social media platforms, and later registers crimes against them, on the same allegations. If trial in these cases is permitted to continue, it would be putting a premium on the activities of the complainant and her effort to abuse the process of law over and over.”
Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order while allowing a petition filed by a 30-year-old man from Davanagere, questioning the complaint filed with Indiranagar police station at Bengaluru in March 2021, and a subsequent complaint at Women’s Police Station in Davanagere by the woman, aged 29, of Bengaluru.
After the complainant came in contact with the petitioner in 2013 through Facebook, they became friends and this went on till 2019. The complainant alleged that the petitioner had sexual intercourse on the promise of marriage, and after 2019, stopped all intimacy.
The court said that it is not one or two, but six years of consensual physical/sexual relationship between the petitioner and complainant. Fading intimacy after six years of consensual sexual intercourse cannot mean it would become an ingredient of Section 375 IPC. Therefore, it cannot be construed as rape, which is punishable under Section 376 IPC, the court added.
Counsel for the petitioner also submitted that the complainant was in the habit of registering crimes against several people. Quoting one such instance, the counsel explained that a similar complaint filed by her against another man in 2014 had ended in acquittal in 2016. The reason for acquittal was that she had turned hostile by reversing her stand.