A Mumbai sessions court has acquitted a 36-year-old NRI scientist from the US, who had been accused of raping a 27-year-old woman under the false promise of marriage. The court concluded that the woman had given her consent knowingly and willingly, and there was insufficient evidence to support the claim of a false promise of marriage. The judgment emphasized that consent, when given by an adult who understands the consequences, cannot be considered misconceived.

The woman had met the accused through a matrimonial platform and alleged that she was drugged and raped during a hotel meeting on New Year’s Eve 2019. However, the court found inconsistencies in her statements, including her failure to disclose her existing marital status and religious conversion to the accused. The messages exchanged between the two suggested mutual consent.

The accused, originally from Ahmedabad and residing in Wisconsin, had been on bail. The woman later married another man in 2021.

Sources