The Supreme Court on Monday acquitted a man in a 20-year-old rape case after observing that he and the woman were in love, their relationship was consensual and the case was filed as an “afterthought” because the man eventually decided to marry someone else, NDTV reported.
The court said that “no woman, after being sexually assaulted at knife-point, would write love letters to the accused and share a live-in relationship with him for four years”.
A bench comprising Justices RF Nariman, Navin Sinha and Indira Banerjee made the observations while setting aside the conviction of the man by a trial court and the Jharkhand High Court in 1999. The alleged assault took place in 1995, but the woman reportedly said she stayed quiet for four years because the accused had promised to marry her.
However, the court said the delay of four years in lodging the first…