Court Orders Woman To Pay Rs 25,000 Over Rape Charge U-Turn After 6 Years

Mumbai:

The Bombay High Court imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on a woman, who six years ago accused a man of raping her and forcing her to abort twice, only to clarify later that it was a consensual relationship and there was no coercion.

A division bench of Justices Anuja Prabhudessai and NR Borkar in its September 20 order, made available on Tuesday, noted that the woman said before the High Court that she terminated her pregnancies of her own will.

The accused in the case went to the High Court seeking to quash the FIR in the case.

“The complainant has filed her affidavit stating that the relationship with petitioner (the accused) was consensual and that she had taken a conscious decision to abort the pregnancies since she was not legally married. She claims that she is already married to another person and has a child and is living a peaceful family life. She has accorded her consent to quash the FIR and all consequent proceedings,” the court noted in the order.

The judges directed that the FIR be quashed accordingly, but also asked the woman to pay Rs 25,000, by way of cost, to the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai within two weeks.

In 2017, the woman alleged that the petitioner raped her and his family members compelled her to terminate the pregnancies twice.

Even if the allegations in the FIR were accepted in their entirety, the physical relationship between the parties was consensual, the court observed.

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