A 40-year-old man in Chhattisgarh has secured legal immunity from rape and murder charges after his wife died due to medical complications resulted from brutal unnatural sex that was forced by the man. As per Chhattisgarh High Court, since unnatural sex is no longer a crime, and marital rape is not exactly ‘rape’ as per Indian laws, the man cannot be held guilty.
On Monday, the single judge bench of Justice Narendra Kumar Vyas set aside the conviction of the accused person by the trial court. The High Court said that the charges of unnatural sex (Section 377), rape (Section 376), and culpable homicide (Section 304) cannot be upheld against the man and acquitted him of all charges, ordering his immediate release.
Citing Exception 2 under Section 375 of IPC the Court said that the husband cannot be held guilty of rape if the victim is his wife. Further, the Court said that since the wife was above 15-years old, the forced unnatural sex cannot be termed as ‘rape’ because the absence of consent does not apply in a marital relation as per existing Indian law.
Citing the above legal complications, the judge said that since it cannot be called rape and unnatural sex is no longer a crime, the husband cannot be held guilty for the same.
The woman died in 2017. On 11 December 2017, the victim woman in her dying declaration before a magistrate had stated that her husband subjected her to brutal unnatural sex, which ruptured her anus. She died on the same day.
