Bombay High Court quashes Rape FIR after Accused marries Complainant

Bombay High Court law insiderBombay High Court law insider

Shivani Gadhavi

Published On: January 10, 2022 at 18:21 IST

The Bombay High Court quashed a First Information Report (FIR) that was registered against a man under Section 376 (Rape) and 354 (using criminal force and assaulting a woman) of the Indian Penal Code. The complaint was quashed because the complainant got married to the accused.

A Division Bench of the Bombay High Court comprising of Justices Prasanna B Varale and Anil S Kilor, was listening to a petition filed by a man named Swapnil Digambar Patil who sought the quashing of the First Information Report (FIR) filed against him.

The set of lawyers for the Petitioner comprising of Advocate Ganesh Gupta and Pratik Patil stated that the Petitioner had gotten out on bail from a Trial Court’s order and then the Petitioner and the complainant in the case in which he is the accused, got married on March 11, 2020 and since then the wife of the Petitioner is seeking to withdraw the FIR against her husband.

In view of the First Information Report filed against Petitioner, Swapnil Digambar Patil had allegedly Assaulted the woman (now his wife) sexually between June 2019 and January 2020 at various places under the false promises that he would get married to her.

The Division Bench of the Bombay High Court while quashing the FIR stated, “Consequently, no fruitful purpose will be served by continuing with the prosecution. Apart from this, now the respondent/complainant and applicant have got married and residing together as husband and wife.”

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