Bail denied to married man in rape case

The accused had cheated the woman by promising that he would seek divorce from his wife

A Dindoshi sessions court has rejected the bail plea of a married man booked for befriending a woman on a matrimonial site and cheating her into developing sexual relations with him on the promise of marriage.

The man’s advocate argued that there was no direct evidence to connect him in the crime, the chargesheet has been filed six months ago and that the 29year-old was not a habitual offender.

The Malad police station which had registered the complaint, opposed the bail plea and told court that applicant - Santosh Gajbare had cheated the woman by pretending that he will seek divorce from his wife and developed sexual relations with her.

As per the complaint, the woman had

met Gajbare through a matrimonial website where she had found his profile. The woman was residing separately from her husband and was interested in remarrying after her divorce and hence was looking for a partner. He had apparently told her that his wife was residing separately from him and he will be getting a divorce from her. He also approached the victim’s family with a marriage proposal, to which they consented. Thereafter, on the promise of marriage he had sexual relations with her, until one day, when he told her that his wife will be returning to live with him. She found out that the couple had been living together all the while, while he was cheating her.

Rejecting the bail plea, additional sessions judge SU Baghele said that the factual matrix shows that the case is not one of love affair and sexual intercourse out of promise to marry, but one where in spite of the fact of continuous co-habitation between the applicant and his wife, without any intention of getting divorce, the applicant had posted his profile on the website for getting married again. The court noted that not only that, the man also gave a proposal for marriage to the family members of the informant. It is in such scenario, it said, that the informant seems to have accorded her consent for the sexual intercourse.

“Thus, this is not the case of the breach of promise to marry, but this is the case of obtaining of consent for sexual intercourse, by cheating the informant, which ultimately amounts to rape,” judge Baghele said, denying the man bail.