Maharshtra : Obtaining consent for sex by marrying second by hiding first marriage is like rape, important order of HC
Obtaining consent for sex by marrying the second by hiding the matter of the first marriage is a kind of rape. The Bombay High Court made the remarks while refusing to acquit her so-called ‘husband’ in a rape case filed by a Marathi actress. In this case, a man claiming to be unmarried had married a divorced Marathi actress while he has a wife and two children from his first marriage. He lied to the actress that he was divorced from his wife. He had also shown the alleged divorce papers, which later turned out to be fake. Now this person named Siddharth Banthia will face a rape case. The court has also declared his second marriage as void.
According to Hindustan Times, a common friend introduced the Marathi actress to Siddharth Banthia in 2008. He reportedly said that he was single and proposed to the actress in June 2010. A month later in Versova, both of them got married and started living together. About two months later, the actress got a call from a woman. She claimed that she is Siddhartha’s wife and they also have two children. When the actress talked to Siddharth about this, he claimed that his previous marriage has been dissolved. He even showed the alleged divorce papers.
Later, when the actress and Sidharth celebrated their wedding anniversary in a hotel and their photos were published in the newspapers, seeing them the first wife came to their house and created a ruckus. Then Siddharth allegedly admitted that the divorce papers he had shown were fake. After this, the actress filed a complaint against Siddharth in 2013 under sections 420, 406, 467, 471, 474, 376, 323, 504, 506(i) and 494 of the IPC including rape at Dattawadi police station in Pune. Police completed the investigation and filed the charge sheet. Against this, Siddharth filed a petition in the Pune Sessions Court seeking acquittal. After the hearing, the sessions court on 3 September 2021 refused to drop the rape charges and dismissed the petition. After this Siddharth approached the Bombay High Court.
According to Live Law, Siddharth claimed in the High Court that the wedding and anniversary celebrations were just drama as the actress had asked him to play the role of husband in a programme. Since Siddharth is fond of film and TV, he agreed to do this role. On the other hand, the lawyer of the actress said that despite being already married, Siddharth lured the actress into marriage and stayed with her pretending to be her husband. It comes under rape under section 375(4) of IPC.
Siddharth’s lawyer, Viresh Purwant, argued in response that there was no evidence that the actress’s first marriage was legally dissolved. In such a situation, the claim that he had taken the consent of the actress by pretending to be unmarried, is false. Moreover, no case of rape is made out as there is no evidence that the physical relationship between them took place without consent.
According to Live Law, the Single Bench of Justice NJ Jamadar of the High Court, in its decision, dismissed Siddharth’s petition, saying that since he had married the actress for the second time being his first wife, this marriage is not valid. The accused intentionally had physical relations with the actress by pretending to be her husband. Had the actress known that she was already married, she might not have consented to it.
