Three years ago, he promised he would divorce his wife and marry her, but he broke his word. Now, under an obscure law, she’s charging him with rape.Amrita Pingra (named changed), a 26-year-old public relations officer with the IDBI, complained to Cuffe Parade police on July 5 that a senior manager at the bank, Porus Yezdi Mistry (35), ‘‘had obtained her consent for sex under false promises of marriage’’.Mistry was arrested and charged with rape under Section 376 of the IPC on July 7. He was later released on a bail of Rs 10,000.In her complaint, Pingra said her affair with Mistry began while they were both working at IDBI’s Warden Road branch three years ago. The relationship began with a lie, claimed Pingra. Mistry told her he was single when he had a wife and son tucked away at his Tata Colony home in Tardeo.It didn’t take Pingra long to discover the truth and she tried to break off their affair. But Mistry pleaded with her, telling her he was unhappy in his marriage and planned to divorce his wife soon. The affair dragged on until Mistry told Pingra that he could not bring himself to divorce his wife.Pingra was later transferred to the Mittal Court branch. On July 2, she made a formal complaint to IDBI which treated the matter as a sexual harrassment case and began investigation. On July 4, Pingra submitted her resignation which the bank refused to accept. The next day, she went to police and accused Mistry of rape.‘‘We are investigating the matter,’’ said Shalaka Gadekar of IDBI’s Human Resources Department. The bank said that depending on the gravity of the offence, Mistry could face disciplinary action.Although Section 376 of the IPC does not include obtaining consent for sex through false promises of marriage in its definition of rape, the definition has been established in precedents in Indian law. If convicted, Mistry will face the full penalties of the law for rape, from a minimum of seven years to life imprisonment.
