NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has quashed an FIR lodged against a government servant for alleged rape upon a colleague working as a computer operator on the pretext of marriage, noting that the complaint was lodged as an afterthought and act of vengeance.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N Kotiswar Singh found the woman, the mother of a son from her previous marriage, filed the complaint after the appellant, working as Assistant Revenue Inspector in Suhagi Municipal Corporation, had already approached the authorities against her.
"The fact that the subject FIR was only lodged after the issuance of show-cause notice, which obviously has large real-world implications insofar as the complainant is concerned, leaves open a gaping possibility that the same was lodged as an afterthought and was a vehicle for vengeance for the impending consequences," the bench said.
Surendra Khawse was aggrieved with January 27, 2025 judgment of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which has refused to exercise its powers under Section 528 of Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita to quash the FIR and the charge sheet.
It was alleged during the work, the friendship of the two developed into physical relationship.
The woman claimed she clearly indicated she was married and had a son. He said that they would, at one point in future, be joined in matrimony.
It was then alleged that on March 15, 2023 the appellant-accused called the complainant to his residence after office hours and forced intimate relations with her. When she resisted/refused he assured, he assured of marriage.
She claimed this situation continued till April 10, 2023. A few days thereafter, upon being asked as to why they are yet to get married, the complainant alleged that the appellant-accused refused and asked her to marry someone else. Terming this to be rape on pretext of marriage, the complainant filed the FIR.
On April 24, 2023, the man filed a complaint before the police alleging that the complainant with whom he did not want any relationship or dealing, repeatedly threatened him saying that she would kill herself. He alleged she came to his residence, hurled abuses and also consumed rat poison.
He also lodged a complaint with municipal authorities who issued a show cause notice to the woman. She was also asked to rectify herself or she would be relieved of employment.
The woman thereafter filed the FIR on October 13, 2023.
The court noted the appellant-accused and the complainant had been colleagues for the past five years and it is somewhere during this time that their relationship progressed.
"We notice that the appellant-accused had initiated legal processes/administrative processes against the complainant much prior to the subject FIR being lodged," the bench said.
The court noted the FIR was lodged four months after the alleged incident of forced sexual intercourse with the complainant.
The bench said, if the description of the offence is taken at face value, right at the first instance, the complainant was not willing and was persuaded to engage in relations on the assurance of eventual marriage between the parties.
"When she enquired as to when the same would take place, a few days later, allegedly the appellant accused refused and asked her to marry someone else. That would be the first occasion when, having realised that she had been taken advantage of the complainant should have taken the requisite action," the bench said.
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