A Chennai court has awarded Rs 15 lakh as compensation to man who, as a college student, was arrested on charges of rape and made to face trial for more than seven years.

A DNA test proved that he was not the father of the child the woman delivered. After that Santhosh filed a suit for compensation of Rs. 30L saying the false rape charge had ruined his career and life. Partly allowing his plea, a city court awarded Rs 15 lakh as compensation and directed the woman and her parents who made the false complaint to pay the compensation.

Santhosh’s lawyer A. Sirajudeen said his client’s family and the woman’s family were neighbours. Later, Santhosh and his family shifted to another neighbourhood in Chennai.
Santhosh had enrolled for BTech in an engineering college when the woman’s mother approached his parents claiming that he had impregnated the girl and demanded that the families should arrange their marriage.

After he denied any such relationship with her, she and her parents lodged a complaint of rape. He was arrested and remanded in judicial custody for 95 days. On February 12, 2010, he came out on bail. By that time, the woman had delivered a girl. A DNA test proved that Santhosh was not the child’s father. The case went for trial. A mahila court in Chennai acquitted him on February 10, 2016.
Santhosh filed the suit for damages saying he was made to spend Rs 2 lakh for case. He couldn’t get even a commercial driving licence and was forced to work as an office assistant for a pittance.