CHENNAI: A city court has sentenced a 22-year-old man to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a woman with whom he had a relationship for three years.

The prosecution submitted that R Velu often visited his brother’s residence in Royapuram. The victim Sangeetha Raj (name changed) lived in a house opposite Velu’s brother’s residence. They met during one of Velu’s visits and soon developed a relationship. Velu would take Sangeetha, who was 18 at the time, out on dates, to the movies, to temples and various other places. In December 2009, he told her that he wanted to introduce her to his parents to seek permission to marry her and convinced her to accompany him to his house. Sangeetha agreed but discovered once they arrived at Velu’s house that his parents were not in the city.

Velu then coaxed Sangeetha to have sex with him and said he would soon marry her. In spite of the fact that she expressed reluctance to have sex before they got married, Velu coerced her to submit to his advances.

Velu then started avoiding her and refused to answer her calls. Sangeetha repeatedly asked Velu to marry her but he refused, the prosecution informed the court. Five months later, he married his relative’s daughter. Sangeetha then tried to commit suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills. Her family managed to get her to a hospital in time for doctors to save her. Sangeetha then registered a complaint with the Royapuram police.

Police arrested Velu on May 11, 2010 and charged him under IPC Sections 376 (punishment for rape) and 417 (cheating).

When the case came for hearing in a mahila court, judge Meena Satheesh cited a precedent established by the Supreme Court. The apex court had ruled that if a man did not intend to marry a woman and used marriage as a pretext to obtain consent for sex, the act constituted rape.

Though a medical examination had failed to prove that Velu had raped Sangeetha, the facts and circumstances of the case, testimony of eyewitnesses, Sangeetha’s statement and other evidence proved that Velu was guilty of rape beyond reasonable doubt, the judge said, convicting him on the charge.

The judge then sentenced Velu to seven years rigorous imprisonment and fined him 10,000 for rape. She added an additional year of imprisonment and a Rs 1,000 fine for cheating. Both sentences would run concurrently, the judge said.