The
Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a rape case against a former Army officer,
ruling that a 16-year-long intimate relationship between him and the
complainant indicated there was no element of force, reported NDTV.
A
bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta also rejected
the woman’s claim that she was coerced into a sexual relationship under a false
promise of marriage. The court observed that such an assertion was unreasonable
given the length and nature of their relationship, which involved multiple
consensual encounters.
The Supreme Court took note of the complainant’s
legal history, revealing that she had filed eight separate cases against eight
different men on allegations of sexual harassment and rape between 2014 and
2022. The court also pointed out inconsistencies in her statements, such as
variations in the spelling of her name and other details, and noted her lack of
cooperation with previous investigations.
“The
complainant has not cooperated with the investigation and has failed to appear
before this court despite being served notice,” the court said.
Dismissing
the rape allegation, the top court said, “No reasonable man would accept the
version... that the complainant allowed the accused to establish sexual
relations with her over a period of 16 years purely under the misconception of
marriage.”
A key claim in the woman’s complaint was that, three
years into the relationship, the accused allegedly drugged her and raped her.
However, the court found this argument unconvincing.
“When the two were already in a long-standing
intimate relationship, why would the accused take the trouble of spiking her
drink?” the bench questioned.
What further raised doubts about the allegations was
the timing of the complaint. The case was filed only after the complainant
learned that the accused was set to marry another woman. Calling the
accusations “full of material contradictions and ex facie unbelievable,” the
Supreme Court ruled in favour of the former Army officer.