A Ghaziabad court has convicted a man for kidnapping and raping a minor, ruling that consent is irrelevant under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act. The case involves a woman who was a minor when she eloped with her classmate in 2021, but later married someone else after turning 18.
Case Background
The accused and the victim were classmates from Class VII. According to the police, by the time they reached Class X, they were in love. In April 2021, days after she turned 17 years and six months, she left with him, married him at a temple, and spent two weeks in Gurgaon before police traced them.
When her mother filed a kidnapping complaint, the girl told cops and a magistrate that she had gone of her own free will. The boy was charged for kidnapping under Section 363 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), rape under Section 376 IPC, and provisions of the Pocso Act.
Change in Testimony
In July 2021, after she turned 18, she married someone else. In 2025, by this time a mother of two, when the Pocso case came up for hearing in court, she had a different version to offer. She told the court she was misled into accompanying the accused, her former classmate, to a temple on April 1, 2021, where they got married, and that he forced her into a physical relationship.
The accused maintained throughout that she had married him willingly and that he was falsely implicated.
Court's Ruling
The court found the question of consent inconsequential as the woman was a minor at the time. Additional District and Sessions Judge-II (Pocso) Poonam held that since the girl was a minor — 17 years, six months and 29 days old at the time — consent for both the marriage and the physical relationship was legally irrelevant. The accused was convicted of kidnapping and rape of a minor and sentenced to three years and 10 years in prison, respectively, along with a fine of Rs 15,000. Both sentences are to run concurrently and adjusted against the time already served in custody, said special public prosecutor Sanjeev Kumar Bakharwa.
“It is thus clear that the prosecution has succeeded in proving the offence under Section 376 IPC against the accused beyond a reasonable doubt,” the judge noted, adding that the absence of physical injuries on the victim could not be used to deny that the offence had taken place. “In a case of rape, if a physical relationship is established by threatening or intimidating the victim, injuries are not normally likely,” the court observed.
Rejection of Defence Arguments
The court also rejected the defence argument that her voluntary elopement negated the charges. Relying on her testimony before the court, the judge said it was difficult to determine the circumstances under which the physical relationship was established or what influence may have been brought to bear, given that she was a minor in the legal guardianship of her mother.
Police Complaint and Investigation
The case was registered at Nandgram police station on April 3, 2021, after the girl did not return from school. Her mother told the court she had suspected the boy, her classmate from a previous school, and reported his name. When her daughter was found 11 days later, she admitted to having eloped and married him. “Soon after, for her better future, I got her married elsewhere. She is now leading a peaceful matrimonial life,” the mother told the court.
Charges were framed on August 25, 2021. The recording of evidence began on March 30, 2022, with the prosecution presenting seven witnesses.
