Surat: The Gujarat High Court has stayed the arrest of a man in a rape case filed by the woman who was in a relationship with him for 18 years. The FIR was registered with the Dindoli police station after the man allegedly refused to marry her.During the hearing of the quashing petition, the accused person’s counsel, Ashwin Jogadia and Raajen Jadhav, submitted that the accused and the victim in the case had consensual sex, which cannot be described as rape. It was also submitted that the victim gave birth to a child in 2013 during the long-term relationship. However, as the accused allegedly reneged on his marriage promise, she filed a rape complaint. The 45-year-old victim worked as a receptionist at a hospital. Provisions of the SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities) were also invoked as the victim belongs to the Scheduled Tribe.The lawyers drew the HC’s attention to the fact that the complainant woman, who claims victimhood, was running a brothel and was booked by the police under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act in the past.It was contended that the FIR is nothing but a tool to pressurize the petitioner under the garb of criminal prosecution and extract a huge amount of money wrongfully. She had demanded a huge amount of money from the petitioner for withdrawing the complaint. It was contended that continuation of proceedings against the present applicant would be an abuse of the process of law.After the preliminary hearing, Justice M K Thakker issued notice to the police seeking the reply by July 9, and till then asked the police not to take any coercive action against the accused.
