‘Consensual relationship gone sour’: Delhi court acquits man of rape charges
The court observed that the case involved a romantic relationship that lasted nearly three years, which was given a criminal colour after it ended. It also pointed to the ‘considerable’ delay in lodging the complaint
The report was placed before Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav in connection with a plea filed by a 29-year-old married woman seeking termination of her pregnancy. (File Photo)
A Delhi court Wednesday acquitted a man, who was in a relationship with a woman from another faith, in a rape case lodged in August 2025 while noting that the relationship between the couple was a consensual one.
The man was in judicial custody from September to mid-April before his acquittal.
The court observed that the case involved a romantic relationship that lasted nearly three years, which was given a criminal colour after it ended.
“… it is clear there existed a consensual relation between the prosecutrix and the accused, which perhaps went sour for some reason, which probably triggered the lodging of the present FIR. These facts clearly show that there is considerable unexplained delay in reporting the matter to police and, thus, the false implication of the accused cannot be ruled out,” said Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Vishal Pahuja of Tis Hazari Court in his judgment dated April 13 which was recently made public.
“All the evidence brought on record by the prosecution shows that the prosecutrix entered into a relationship with the accused due to love and affection. The prosecutrix willingly consented to have sexual intercourse with the accused with whom she was in love, not because he promised to marry her but because she also desired it,” the judge said.
“.. the prosecutrix alleged that the accused committed rape upon her in December 2022 and thereafter repeatedly till June 2025 but she did not raise any issue till lodging of the FIR in August 2025. Prosecutrix failed to give any plausible explanation as to why she waited so long to lodge the complaint against the accused… Lodging an FIR after unreasonable delay without any plausible reasons or grounds is very fatal to the case of the prosecution,” he added.
As per the complainant’s case, she met the accused in December 2022 after which they became friends. It was alleged that on December 9 that year, the accused established physical relations with her on the “false pretext of marriage”.
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The complainant had further alleged that in May last year, she became pregnant after which the man administered some medicine to her which caused miscarriage. The man was booked on charges of rape, rape repeatedly on the same woman and causing miscarriage without woman’s consent.
On the miscarriage charge, the court held that the prosecution provided no medical evidence to support their claim.
“… medical documents only prove the pregnancy status of the prosecutrix but nowhere it reflects the name of the accused as the person responsible for the pregnancy of the prosecutrix. PW1, during her cross examination, admitted that no medical document reflects the name of the accused as the father of the baby,” ASJ Pahuja said.
“Now if the accused had given the pills to the prosecutrix or caused her abortion, the same would have been stated by the prosecutrix during her medical examination but it is not the case herein… admittedly, no medical evidence has been adduced on record to establish that miscarriage of the prosecutrix happened due to consumption of any medicine. No doctor to this effect has been examined by prosecutrix to corroborate the claim of prosecutrix,” he added.
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“The prosecutrix, being a… matured lady of 27 years, cannot be assumed to be so naive that she was not aware of the probable consequences of the acts [to which] she was giving her consent to establish physical relations. It is not the case of the prosecution that the prosecutrix was blackmailed by the accused through any means or she was under any kind of threat, rather she always willingly entered into friendship and then into physical relationship with the accused,” the Judge said.
The court also noted that the prosecution has not examined the mother of the woman, who could have been the “material witness” in the case.
Defence counsel Fahad Khan told The Indian Express, “While the FIR was registered in August 2025 following allegations of sexual assault under the pretext of marriage, the case quickly became a focal point for ‘love jihad’ narratives on social media. Despite the intense societal pressure and gravity of accusations… we maintained full faith in the judicial process…”
Nirbhay Thakur is a Senior Correspondent with The Indian Express who primarily covers district courts in Delhi and has reported on the trials of many high-profile cases since 2023.
Professional Background
Education: Nirbhay is an economics graduate from Delhi University.
Beats: His reporting spans the trial courts, and he occasionally interviews ambassadors and has a keen interest in doing data stories.
Specializations: He has a specific interest in data stories related to courts.
Core Strength: Nirbhay is known for tracking long-running legal sagas and providing meticulous updates on high-profile criminal trials.
Recent notable articles
In 2025, he has written long form articles and two investigations. Along with breaking many court stories, he has also done various exclusive stories.
1) A long form on Surender Koli, accused in the Nithari serial killings of 2006. He was acquitted after spending 2 decades in jail. was a branded man. Deemed the “cannibal" who allegedly lured children to his employer’s house in Noida, murdered them, and “ate their flesh” – his actions cited were cited as evidence of human depravity at its worst. However, the SC acquitted him finding various lapses in the investigation. The Indian Express spoke to his lawyers and traced the 2 decades journey.
2) For decades, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been at the forefront of the Government’s national rankings, placed at No. 2 over the past two years alone. It has also been the crucible of campus activism, its protests often spilling into national debates, its student leaders going on to become the faces and voices of political parties of all hues and thoughts. The Indian Express looked at all court cases spanning over two decades and did an investigation.
3) Investigation on the 700 Delhi riots cases. The Indian Express found that in 17 of 93 acquittals (which amounted to 85% of the decided cases) in Delhi riots cases, courts red-flag ‘fabricated’ evidence and pulled up the police.
Signature Style
Nirbhay’s writing is characterized by its procedural depth. He excels at summarizing 400-page chargesheets and complex court orders into digestible news for the general public.
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