Jabalpur, Mar 16 (PTI) The Madhya Pradesh High Court has quashed an FIR accusing a married Army officer of raping a policewoman on the pretext of marriage, observing that their relationship was consensual and the case appears to be a pressure tactic by the complainant.
A single bench of Justice Vinay Saraf, in an order passed on March 11, held that the case appeared to have been filed after the relationship between the two turned sour.
“It appears that due to the failure of the relationship between the petitioner (Army officer) and the complainant (policewoman), the complainant has lodged the instant FIR to pressurise the petitioner to continue the relationship,” the bench stated.
The bench said that, considering the long relationship between the petitioner and the complainant, it was difficult to believe that the physical relationship had been developed on the basis of a false promise of marriage.
“In view of the same, this court is of the view that the petitioner is able to make out a case that it is not a case of rape but a case of consensual relationship,” the HC noted.
The bench further observed that the registration of the FIR appeared to be an abuse of the process of law and allowed the Army officer’s petition seeking quashing of the FIR registered last year at the Mahila Thana in Bhopal.
“This court does not find any material and any ingredient in the FIR that any offence under sections 69 (sexual intercourse obtained through deceitful means or false promise to marry) or 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of the BNS is made out against the petitioner,” the high court said.
According to the FIR, the policewoman first met the officer at the Army canteen in the Shahjahanabad area of Bhopal on December 23, 2012, after which they started talking on mobile phones.
The complainant alleged that the officer falsely claimed to be a bachelor and promised to marry her. They subsequently established physical relations and continued to meet several times thereafter.
She later came to know in 2013 that the officer was already married, the FIR said.
When she confronted him, he allegedly told her that his wife’s character was bad and that they were not living together. He assured her that he would obtain a divorce and marry her in the future, it said.
The relationship between the two continued till 2025, when the complainant allegedly found that the officer was also in contact with other women and had made similar assurances to them.
The FIR alleged that the officer later threatened her, following which she approached the police. PTI LAL NSK
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