New Delhi: A 31-year old man, who deceitfully had physical relations with a girl and tied the knot with her while concealing that he was already married, has been sent to jail for 15 years by a Delhi court which said he also cheated the victim's parents by falsely taking Rs 12.6 lakh from them.
While sentencing the convict, Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat also observed that he not only ruined the life of the 18-year-old victim but also brought her parents on road by compelling them to sell their house to give him money.
The court convicted the man for offences under sections 376 (rape), 420 (cheating) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the IPC and also imposed a fine of Rs 2.5 lakh on him. While convicting him for the offence of rape, the court noted in its order that he had deceitfully obtained the girl's consent for physical relations.
"The convict has thus ruined the whole life of the girl. He has brought her to that point of life where she would find very difficult to either move forward or to turn back. Her marriage with convict is illegal. It would be very difficult for her to get any suitable match, being mother of a daughter.
"The convict entangled the girl in his trap deceitfully, taking advantage of her tender age as well as immaturity and thus satiated his sexual lust upon her on the belief that he is her illegally wedded husband, which was not the case," the court said.
It further said that he had obtained her consent "on the basis of false misrepresentation that he was a bachelor before marrying her." The court also held him guilty for the offence of cheating saying he had compelled the girl's father to sell his house and took away the sum of Rs 12.6 lakh from him on the pretext that he would purchase a home and all of them would reside jointly.
"However, the convict misappropriated the whole amount of Rs 12.6 lakh. He neither purchased the floor in question nor returned the said amount to his father-in-law despite his demands," the court noted. According to the prosecution, the man had allured the girl in 2006 and had physical relations with her by concealing that he was already married and having two children. In 2007, he went through the marriage rituals with her.
The police told the court that a case was lodged in June 2012 after the girl came to know about his previous marriage and she approached the police.
During the trial, the accused denied all the allegations levelled against him and said that prior to his marriage with the girl, he had informed her and her parents about his earlier marriage. He had also denied taking any money from the girl and her parents.
The court, however, convicted him while relying on the testimonies of the witnesses saying it was clear that accused had misrepresented the fact about his earlier marriage.
"Therefore the evidence on record establishes that the accused had concealed the factum of his first marriage from the prosecutrix. The prosecutrix married the accused on the belief that he is a bachelor and also permitted the accused to have sexual intercourse with her after marriage on the same belief that he is a bachelor," it said.
"The accused also knew that prosecutrix had married him and had given consent for physical relations with him after marriage on the belief that he was a bachelor," it said.
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