Deceitful marriage through website: Man sentenced to 7-yr jail for rape

The court said that consent of the victim to establish physical relation with the man, whom she married in 2009, was invalid as she was unaware of his first marriage. “The consent of the prosecutrix, in these circumstances, can certainly not said to be a valid consent… Consequently, the accused in these circumstances, is liable to be convicted for committing rape upon her punishable under section 376
(rape) of the IPC,” the judge said.

According to the prosecution, the woman’s father got her married to the accused after finding him on a matrimonial website in February 2009. She alleged that after around 10 days, the accused told her that he had been transferred to Pune and later stopped responding to her phone calls and threatened that she and her family members would be killed if they tried to find him, it said.

It also claimed that jewellery worth Rs 2 lakh and Rs 1.50 lakh cash, besides other articles were given to the accused as dowry. It was further alleged that the man had made several fake profiles on the matrimonial website. During the trial, he denied all the allegations and
claimed that he was falsely implicated by the woman and her father.