Cuttack: Making sexual intercourse on the false pretext of marriage does not amount to rape, Orissa High Court said in a recent case setting aside a lower court order that had rejected the bail plea of an accused of committing rape.
As per reports, Police had booked one G. Achyuta Kumar of Jeypore u/s 376 of IPC for committing rape on the basis of a complaint lodged by a 19-year-old girl. She had alleged that the accused had established sexual relationship with her after promising to marry her.
The alleged victim of rape had lodged the complaint with the Patangi police station in Koraput district on November 27. The accused has been in custody since the court of sessions cum special judge Koraput- Jeypore rejected his bail plea on December 11.
He said, “The definition of rape as codified in section 375 of IPC wherein rape has been defined as certain sexual acts when committed on a victim, falling under any of the seven descriptions.”
Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code defines rape as “sexual intercourse with a woman against her will, without her consent, by coercion, misrepresentation or fraud or at a time when she has been intoxicated or duped, or is of unsound mental health and in any case if she is under 18 years of age.”
In the case Justice SK Panigrahi maintained that ‘promise of marriage amounts to rape’ appears to be erroneous as the ingredients of rape prescribed u/s 375 of the IPC do not cover it.
Ms Kalinga