In Brief
Maheshwar Tigga was convicted of rape under IPC Sections 376, 323, and 341 based on the prosecutrix's claim that the appellant had coerced her into a sexual relationship under a false promise of marriage. The Supreme Court allowed his appeal and acquitted him. The Court found that the four-year delay in lodging the FIR (just before the appellant's marriage to another woman), the prosecutrix's own admission during cross-examination that no forced incident had occurred, and her letters acknowledging the appellant's family's kindness, established that her consent was genuine and conscious—rooted in her deep emotional attachment—rather than fraudulently obtained or coerced. The evidence was insufficient to prove rape.
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