NEW DELHI: Consent to indulge in unnatural sex is “immaterial” as it is against the order of nature , a trial court said while convicting a man of raping and committing unnatural acts with a woman on the pretext of marriage . The convict was already married.

Additional sessions judge Virender Bhat held Noida resident Prashant Kaushal guilty of the offences saying although sexual relations between him and the woman were consensual, but her consent, “is immaterial so far as carnal intercourse against the order of nature between a man and a woman is concerned and therefore, every act of unnatural sex committed by the accused with the prosecutrix is an offence under section 377 (unnatural offences) of the IPC.”

The court, which is yet to pronounce the quantum of sentence, said that the woman was having sexual relations with the man under the belief that he has filed a petition for divorce and will marry her at any cost.

The court said it was not just the man but also his parents who had deceived the woman and persuaded her to continue her relations with their son on the false promise that he would marry her. “Kaushal would also force her to consume alcohol before having sex with her so as to ensure that she does not offer much resistance and he gets more pleasure and satisfaction from it,” the court noted, adding that her consent was not free and voluntary.

The prosecution said when Kaushal kept delaying the divorce and marriage proceedings and later threatened to ruin the woman’s life, she lodged a complaint in June 2014.