No rape charges against man for eloping with girl

Wednesday, October 12, 2005, Chandigarh, India
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 11
A youth, who had eloped with a 16-year-old girl and married her, has been acquitted of rape charges by a Delhi court accepting the victim’s statement that whatever had happened was with her consent.

Though the prosecution claimed she was just 11-and-a-half-year old at the time of the incident, Additional Sessions Judge Swarn Kanta Mehra set free Ram Balak after it was proved through a calcification test that she was 16 years old, the age at which her consent is valid as per law.

Ram Balak, who was in love with the sixth standard girl, had picked her up from her residence in Anand Parbat here on July 15, 2003.

He took her away to Sitamarhi in Bihar where they got married and spent eight months together before they were nabbed.

Denying the prosecution’s kidnap and rape story, the girl told the court that she was in love with the accused and got married as per her own will.

However, finding him guilty under Section 363 (kidnapping a minor) of IPC, the court convicted the accused of taking the girl, who had not attained the age of 18, out of her legal guardianship and thereby “affecting her studies”.

He was awarded a one-and-a-half year sentence which he has already undergone in custody and directed to pay a fine of Rs 5,000.

“At that age she was not able to appreciate what was good or bad for her. It was not the time for her to get married but concentrate on her education. The act resulted in loss of studies and it can be attributed to the accused,” the court said.
(Source: The Tribune)