A court in Thane, Maharashtra has ordered the release of a 56-year-old rape accused. The court, while acquitting the accused, said in his remarks that a physical relationship made by consent is not rape. The man was accused of raping his driver's wife.
Additional Sessions Judge RR Vaishnav said in his order last Thursday that the prosecution had failed miserably to prove the rape charge against accused Dilip Sridhar Patil. According to the prosecution, the woman's husband worked as the driver of the accused. She was often mingled with the accused due to her frequent visits to his home.
The prosecutor said that in 2014, the accused summoned the woman to a lodge and raped her. He then raped the woman on several occasions. The prosecution alleged that the woman threatened to defame her and remove her husband from the job after the woman protested. The court was told that after the death of the woman's husband in 2014, the accused raped her several times and also gave her some money. Troubled by this development, one day woman lodged a police complaint.
The judge found that the woman said in her statement that she did not want action against the accused. During the interrogation by the defense council, he admitted that there was a consensual relationship between him and the accused. The woman admitted that her sister-in-law had come to know about this, after which she lodged a complaint against the accused. The judge said, "The victim confessed the story of the prosecution by accepting all this."
