The Delhi High Court has refused to dismiss an FIR filed against a government employee charged with rape, stating that such an FIR cannot be dismissed on the basis of a settlement reached between the parties and their subsequent marriage because it does not absolve the claimed violation.
The Court was hearing a motion to quash an FIR filed under sections 376, 323, and 506 of the IPC against the man. The woman informed police that she got into an argument with her male companion, the petitioner, who is a government employee, and that he tried to attack her. Later, she revealed that the man had committed sexual assault on her when she went to talk to him about their marriage.
The lady alleged that she contacted the man via matrimonial website Jeevansathi.com, and that he wanted her telephone number. The man then informed her that he was 32 years old, single, and a Customs officer. He did, however, hide the fact that he had a prior love marriage and that his first wife had committed suicide, for which a court case was underway.
Later, the man put vermillion on her and told her that they were husband and wife, but he refused to let her meet his family. The woman further claimed in her complaint that the petitioner then raped her in a car, following which she filed another complaint against him.
She later dropped her case after the man returned to the police station and made another vow to marry her.
The Court noted that, while both parties had reached an amicable settlement and the lady had also filed an affidavit on record stating that they have married each other and has no objection if the FIR was quashed, charges could not be said to have been negated or that the accusations levelled by the lady regarding the alleged crime had lost their gravity.
Saying that rape is not a crime against individuals but an act against society, Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar stated that “In the present case, the petitioner is a Government Servant, working as Superintendent with Customs & CGST department, Govt. of India, holding a Gazetted post. So being a Government Servant, he is expected to maintain high moral rectitude and decent standard of conduct in his personal/private life and not bring discredit to his service by his misdemeanours.”
“In view of the settled position enumerated in Gian Singh’s case (supra) and other cases referred to hereinabove, the criminal proceedings emanating from FIR No. 219/2021 registered at Police Station Patparganj Industrial Area, with the allegations of rape cannot be quashed in exercise of powers vested in this Court under Section 482 Cr.P.C. on the basis of settlement between the complainant (Respondent No. 2) and the petitioner and their subsequent marriage as the same does not waive off the offence as alleged by the complainant against the petitioner,” the Court ordered accordingly dismissing the petition.
