Allahabad High Court quashes rape case against police constable after complainant says ‘misunderstanding’ led to complaint

The Allahabad High Court recently quashed a rape case against a police constable after the complainant said that she had levelled the allegations against the accused due to some misunderstanding [Sachin Kumar Singh v. State of UP]..Justice Subhash Vidyarthi said the criminal proceedings will only result in persecution of the accused (applicant) when there is no absolutely no evidence to support the allegation of rape.The Court also took into account the fact that the parties have compromised the matter. “The alleged victim has herself stated in the compromise that the offence was not committed and she had levelled the allegations due to some misunderstanding, that she is major and she had entered into the compromise without any fear or coercion agreeing for quashing of the proceedings after a long drawn full-fledged trial the applicant will surely be acquitted,” Justice Vidyarthi reasoned..The Court passed the order on a petition filed by applicant Sachin Kumar Singh for quashing of the complaint case that arose out of a criminal case registered under Section 376 (rape) of Indian Penal Code and provisions of Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 at Police Station Sammanpur in 2108. The complainant had in 2018 filed an application under Section 156(3) of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) alleging that the constable in April 2017 had come to her home and raped her. .However, the police after investigation submitted a final report stating that the allegations against the constable had its origin in a criminal case of 2016 in which a team of officials had gone to arrest certain accused persons and recover a stolen vehicle. The accused had resisted the police action leading to registration of another case against them. As per the final report, it was found complainant, who levelled rape charges against the cop, worked at the brick kiln of one of the accused persons and had filed the application under Section 156(3) CrPC on false allegations due to pressure..The complainant in the rape case had filed a protest petition against the closure of the case and the Additional Sessions Judge registered it as a complaint leading to summoning of Singh as an accused for trial.Singh moved the High Court for quashing of the summoning order and the criminal proceedings on the ground that parties in October 2023 had entered into a compromise. The complainant in the compromise said no party was guilty in the matter..The State opposed the petition, contending that the offence is a heinous one. It also cited a Supreme Court decision which said that proceedings in such cases cannot be quashed on the basis of compromise. However, the High Court said the observations by the top court were made in context of a case in which the informant had taken money to settle a case of suicide and Gujarat High Court had not heard the widow while accepting the settlement.“There is no evidence in support of the allegation in the present case. During evidence the Investigating Officer had found the allegations to be false and there is no evidence in support of the allegations, except for the statement of the victim herself and the victim herself has resiled from the allegations and there is no allegation of any monitory transaction between the parties,” the Single Judge said.The Court also observed that there can be no hard and fast rule restricting the powers of the High Court to do substantive justice. Thus, it proceeded to look into the facts..It then found that the complainant was an employee of one of the persons accused in another criminal case and she had lodged the rape case at the behest of her employer to put pressure on the police.“In the compromise, the complainant has categorically stated that she had levelled the allegations due to some misunderstanding and the applicant was not guilty,” it noted. Thus, the Court said the continuation of the proceedings would only be an abuse of the process of law. It accordingly quashed the entire proceedings related to the complaint case pending in Ambedkar Nagar..Advocate Ravindra Kumar Dwivedi represented the applicant.Advocate Anurag Verma appeared for the State.Advocate Dharmendra Kumar Tiwari represented the complainant.[Read Judgment]