Ahmedabad – A sessions court in Ahmedabad has ruled that filing a rape case cannot be used as a way to force a man into fulfilling a promise of marriage. The court acquitted a bank employee, Bhavesh Patel, who had been accused by a married woman of raping her under a false promise of marriage.
The case involved a woman who claimed that Patel persuaded her to divorce her husband so they could get married. She said she followed his suggestion and signed a divorce deed on a ₹100 stamp paper in 2017. However, Patel did not marry her after his parents refused the relationship due to the woman already having two children from her first marriage.
When Patel told her he could not marry her, the woman filed an FIR against him under Sections 376 (rape), 420 (cheating), and 506(2) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
During the trial, Additional Sessions Judge Amandeep Sibia observed that the woman was 36 years old and a mother of two at the time of the alleged incidents in 2017. The court said she was mature enough to understand the implications of entering a physical relationship with another man without a legal divorce.
The judge emphasized that her divorce was not legally valid, and therefore, marriage with the accused was not possible. The court also stated that introducing someone to parents doesn’t prove a serious commitment, especially when family approval was clearly not given.
“Using Section 376 of the IPC to enforce a promise of marriage is not appropriate,” the court ruled. It added that a married woman cannot claim to have been cheated into a relationship based on a marriage promise when the marriage could not have legally happened in the first place.
In conclusion, the court found no basis for the charges and dismissed the case, acquitting Bhavesh Patel of all accusations.
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