The Madhya Pradesh High Court recently quashed a rape case against a man that was registered by his ‘second wife’ as the Court noted that it was a frivolous case and her version indicated false allegations against the man.

The Bench of Justice Anand Pathak observed that just to exert pressure on the man to extract money the second wife made such allegations.

In this case the 41-year-old prosecutrix (second wife) lodged an FIR against 55-year-old Manohar Silawat (Applicant/Petitioner) alleging that she was raped by him in the month of May 2001 and as a result she became pregnant and out of such relation, one child was born.

She further alleged that thereafter, he used to have physical relationship with her continuously and used to call her for intermittent payments towards her maintenance amount and the used to rape her. She said that he threatened her with dire consequences if she refused.

On the other hand, challenging the FIR registered against himself and consequential criminal proceedings arising out of the case under Sections 376, 506 of IPC, the petitioner(husband) moved the instant Section 482 CrPC.

The Counsel for the petitioner submitted that the complainant and the petitioner, both belong to Scheduled Caste and as per their customs, Natra (social customs like live-in/marriage) was performed in which, with the consent of his first wife, the petitioner lived with both of his wives.

He further argued that when despite the instance of the prosecutrix, the petitioner did not part his whole property in favor of the prosecutrix, these false allegations have been made against him.

The Counsel of the husband also referred to an application made by the complainant/alleged victim (second wife) under Section 125 of Cr.P.C.before Principal Judge, Family Court, Gwalior seeking maintenance from the petitioner alleging that she is his wife and in July 2019, she was removed by him from her matrimonial household.

The Court noted that the prosecutrix had lived with the petitioner and in fact had with a boy namely Harsh who is now almost 20 years old and after 18 years, she had filed a complaint on which case has been registered against the petitioner

Consequently, the Court remarked that It would be a miscarriage of justice if such false allegations are allowed to sustain and the petitioner is unnecessarily dragged into litigation to defend himself. Therefore, the Court quashed the FIR and entire criminal proceedings and allowed the petitioner’s plea.

Case title – Manohar Silawat vs The State Of Madhya Pradesh