Legal experts

rape

when consensual relationships turn sour. They point out that in most cases it is

either the live-in partner or a girlfriend of the accused who are complainants

FIR stage

High Court of Karnataka

rape allegations

Justice Anand Byrareddy

IPC

gang-rape case

monetary benefits

godman

physical relationship with a devotee. In

2013, the woman filed a case of rape and

outraging the modesty of a woman against

the godman. His bail pleas were rejected

five times and he spent a year in jail. Earlier

this year, the court acquitted him after it

The man’s advocate argued that

the accused weighed 140 kgs and therefore

could not have had forced sex with

anyone. He was acquitted in the rape

charge, but convicted under Section 354

(outraging modesty of a woman). He was

released after paying the Rs 500 fine for

the conviction. He died three months later.

every small incident and turning

them into cases of rape and outraging

modesty of women. They say the

creeping into complaints so that police

can escape blame for registering a

case of rape. The word 'forced' has become

the world of rape cases. But the police

have a different story.

turned into a television drama,

there is intense pressure on the police,”

an officer said. “There are directions

should be treated with utmost

seriousness. If police do not register a

case, there will be a severe backlash.

there are genuine ones too. We have

to file a FIR first and then investigate.

There are no shortcuts and no one

the laws because of public pressure.

You cannot blame police for doing

their duty.”

where a girl was brutally raped and

murdered in a bus in Delhi, has paved the

way for rampant misuse of the law, says

Dore Raju, former state public prosecutor.

employee who were in a relationship ended

up in court,” Raju said. “She alleged

that he pressed his private parts against

her while they were in a godown. There

was no removal of clothes. He was convicted

in both the trial court and high court

and was sentenced to three years in jail.

The definition of rape has changed. There

is no need of penetration to make it a case

of rape. Along with the Negotiable Instruments

Act, sections of the Dowry Prohibition

Act, Section 498(A) of IPC (harassment

of women), The Karnataka

Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes

(prohibition of transfer of certain land) Act

(PTCL Act), the new rape law is also heading

towards rampant misuse. As a prosecutor

myself, I fought for every case tooth

and nail. But the trend of simple cases ending

up with allegations under Section 354

(outraging modesty of women) and Section

376 (rape) is alarming.”

cases are more a case of revenge.

“Women filing rape complaints in

spite of being in a consensual relationship

can only be because of a feeling

of anger, rejection or depression,

says Karuna Bhaskar, director of

1to1help.net, the firm that offers

counseling services. “The intent is to

hurt the other person.” However,

there are cases of consensual relationship

where one person forces him

or herself on the other. The relationship

continues although the other

person is not really interested in carrying

it forward.”

of Psychiatry at NIMHANS says,

“It is a normal human tendency to react

like this as many would think that

in cases where it is a unilateral

relationship where the bond on one

side is stronger and it does not end up

would not go this extreme if it is a platonic

relationship, but if they get physical

the consequences gets worse.”

say that women are increasingly levelling allegations ofA sessions court in the city was confronted with a strange case on Wednesday. The aged parents and sister of a man had approached the court seeking bail in a case where they have been accused of assault, cheating and strangely, rape. It turned out that a techie, the estranged lover of the man, had filed a case of rape against him. Since the case is still at thewhere all the charges are listed together, all four of the family have been accused of rape. The sessions court adjourned the case.Advocates in the city say statistics of rape can be profoundly misleading. They claim many women in consensual relationships are filing cases of rape when the relationship turns sour. Rape, they say, is going the way of dowry harassment.A 33-year-old woman had approached court for maintenance from her live-in partner. The case took a twist when the woman also alleged rape. The matter came up in therecently and Shankarappa, the advocate of the 27-year-old accused argued that the woman had made similaragainst another man. He argued that she had also sought maintenance for live-in relationships from seven other men and almost all the cases were settled out of court. Shankarappa’s client was granted bail.Last week,suspended the 10-year-sentence on a government health officer convicted of rape in July this year. It turned out that he was in a relationship with a woman outside marriage. He had proposed love to the complainant on New Year's Eve 2009 and the two had got into a physical relationship. The woman filed a case under Section 376 (rape) of thewhen the health officer refused to marry her.Vinitha Thimmaiah, the advocate who had helped the techie file the police complaint, explained how the parents and sister of the man were also accused of rape. “The parents and sister are charged with physically and verbally assaulting the girl,” Thimmaiah said. “In an FIR, all the charges against the accused are listed in sequence. The charges are separated only when police file a charge sheet. Our intention was to settle the issue between the families, but the boy's family did not respond positively. If they had only asked the girl's parents to sit down and talk, things would have been different. But not only did they abuse them physically and verbally, but they also went on the streets talking about the character of the girl.”RLN Murthy, the advocate of the main accused and his family members, said, “I do not say there is a spurt in allegations of rape. Due to the prominence given in the media and the hardening of the law, courts are increasingly taking rape allegations seriously. In more than 90 per cent of the cases, it is consensual sex. When it does not end in marriage, it ends up in courts as rape cases.”Criminal advocate Shankrappa, who handled the cases of the health officer and the man who was asked to pay maintenance by his live-in partner, admitted that convictions in cases of rape had increased. “But the dangerous development is that in 95 per cent of rape cases, it is either consensual sex or adultery. When the relationship does not work for whatever reason, rape allegations are made. This is a very dangerous trend. The health of society is at risk. Legislators amended rape laws because there was public pressure. But the results are turning out to be disastrous.”Advocate Mohan Krishna, who handles matrimonial disputes, says there is an alarming tendency to convert every case into a rape case. “The active media which highlights such cases is also to blame,” Krishna said. “Women who have been cheated out of a monogamous relationship are also retaliating with rape allegations these days. The police are also instigating such acts. There is an instance where a prostitute who did not get her due ended up filing a. Police went ahead with it. Simply put, when sex is not converted into marriage or, it ends up as rape. Even we convert the misfortune of the accused into our gain.”A50-year-old city-basedbegan afound that sex between the two was consensual.Legal experts accuse the police of takingwords ‘forced sex’ is increasinglythe opposite of 'consensual' in“With every allegation of rape beingfrom higher-up that such complaintsThere may be false allegations, butwants to be lax. Parliament changedThe amendments to rape laws after the incident“In a recent case, a merchant and hisPsychiatrists say that these rapeDr BN Gangadhar of the Departmentthis is a weapon to hit back. It is commonin marriage as expected. The situation