Court wants woman to be booked for false rape complaint
Evidence submitted by 38-year-old woman, a Goregaon-based scribe, was fake; court drops all charges against the accused who is president of Bandra Bar Association
Ruling a Goregaon woman’s complaint of rape as fake, the Borivali Sessions Court has said she be booked for forgery.
The media professional, had alleged that advocate Ramakant Pandey, president of Bandra Bar Association, married her in 2006.
The 38-year-old woman said she was aware of the fact that Pandey was already married but she still did not have a problem accepting his proposal.
The court found out that the complainant was never married to Pandey, and the evidence she submitted to prove the union - such as photographs and statement of a priest who solemnised the marriage - were fake.
The court, in fact, accepted Pandey’s defence that the woman, through her newspaper was trying to blackmail Pandey. He had reported her threats to the police and in 2006, she was caught accepting Rs 25,000 and a mobile phone handset from Pandey.
Judge D H Sharma, while directing the charges against Pandey be dropped, noted: “The complainant went on supplying fabricated material to the police.
The FIR (against the accused) is nothing but a glaring example of gross abuse of the law. If the court remains a silent spectator, people will lose faith in law.”
To prove her marriage to Pandey, the woman had submitted a black and white photograph of theirs.
Court expressed surprise over the picture, noting: “These days, nobody clicks black and white photographs, and it is also not digestible that one would have only a single photograph of such a size of one’s wedding.”
An interrogation of the owner of the photo studio - where the woman said the picture had been clicked - said there was no facility to take pictures in black and white. Even the priest denied solemnising the wedding ceremony.
The court also took note of the Family Court rejecting the woman’s claims of maintenance and charges of domestic violence against Pandey.
Saying it was clear that the complainant could not succeed in legal battles against Pandey and decided to file a false case of rape against him, the court directed police to prosecute her.
Pandey was thankful his five-year ordeal finally came to an end. “I had to stop work and went into depression. Life had turned hell but thank-fully, my children (a son and a daughter) stood by me.”
https://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/2/2011021020110210023821446f662903b/Court-wants-woman-to-be-booked-for-false-rape-complaint.html
