Case against rapist who wed victim quashed

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has directed Palghar district’s Jawhar Police to quash an FIR registered under the special POCSO Act against a youth who was accused of raping a minor girl, after families of both the boy and the girl informed the court that the couple had been married and had one son from the wedlock. The court was informed that after the FIR was lodged in 2015 when the girl was 17, the boy agreed to marry her and the marriage took place on April 4, 2016.

The division bench of Justices R. M. Savant and Revati Mohite Dere held that as the complainant, the girl and her family, did not wish to pursue the case it could be quashed in hearing a petition by Dinesh Kalingade.

The division bench of Justices R. M. Savant and Revati Mohite Dere was hearing a criminal writ petition by Dinesh Kalingade, who was accused of raping a girl with whom he was in a relationship when she was 17-years-old. The FIR was registered after a fallout between the two lovers. In his petition, Mr Kalingade informed the court that after the FIR was registered he married the girl with the consent of both families and also produced the marriage invitation card to prove his point. He averred that after the marriage they had been living together as husband and wife and hence the FIR should be quashed. However, it was only after the mother of the girl and the mother of the boy confirmed that their children were married and also had a male child from the wedlock that the court accepted the submissions of the boy. The court also examined the girl who too confirmed through an affidavit that she was married and now living with her rapist, as husband and wife and hence did not wish to pursue the case. “The aforesaid facts indicate that the marriage between the respondent no 1 (girl) and the petitioner (rape accused) has transcended the FIR which was registered by the respondent no 1 as a result of which no useful purpose would be served in continuing the proceedings in question in the trial court, observed the court while ordering the quashing of the FIR,” said the court and directed the Jawahar Police where the FIR was registered to inform the trial court of the quashing.