Thane, A Thane court has acquitted a 25-year-old man accused of raping a minor girl in 2019 under the pretext of marriage, after she admitted that their relationship was consensual.

The victim, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, was mature enough to understand the nature and consequences of the act she indulged in, special judge D S Deshmukh said in the order on June 2, a copy of which was made available on Thursday.

The case was registered against Aakash Sachin Sathe in 2019 under sections 376 , 376 , 323 and 504 of the Indian Penal Code as well as provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

The prosecution alleged the man engaged in sexual acts with the victim, both residents of Thane in Maharashtra, between March and June 2019 under the pretext of marriage and later refused to marry her.

After hearing the case, judge Deshmukh observed that the “admissions given by the victim in cross-examination clearly show that she and the accused had consensual sex and now she has no grievance against him. Such admissions given by her are fatal to the case of the prosecution.”

The court also considered the victim’s statement under section 164 of the CrPC wherein she said she lodged the complaint on the say of the accused’s aunt because she wanted to marry the man, but no longer wished to proceed with the case.

“Therefore, considering her age at the time of incident and considering the admissions given by her, there appears a love affair between both of them and at that time, the victim was almost 17 years old and was mature enough to understand what is right and wrong,” the court said.

“In such circumstances, there is no reason to hold the accused guilty of the commission of offence,” it added.

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