The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court has upheld the conviction of a man for raping his mother-in-law, saying it was a shameful act and the victim was like a mother to him.

A single court of judge GA Sanap, in its ruling on Tuesday, noted that the victim was the same age as the convict’s mother and that he had “defiled her femininity”.

The woman would never have imagined that her son-in-law would commit such a deplorable act and would carry this stigma throughout her life, the court said.

“It should be noted that the appellant (convict), who is the son-in-law of the prosecutor (victim-complainant), committed this shameful act with his mother-in-law, who is his own mother’s age. . The appellant defiled the female quality of the prosecutor”, it is said.

“The appellant took advantage of her relationship with the prosecutor. The prosecutor would not have imagined in his wildest dreams that her son-in-law would commit such a deplorable act with her,” the court said.

The court, while upholding the conviction, said that the evidence presented by the prosecution is sufficient to prove the case of rape and the punishment meted out to the convict is absolutely proportionate to the gravity of the crime.

The convict had challenged the March 2022 judgment of a court that convicted and sentenced him to 14 years in prison for the rape of his 55-year-old mother-in-law in December 2018.

The claimant claimed that her son-in-law and daughter were separated and her two grandsons were living with their father.

On the day of the alleged incident, the accused visited the victim, argued with her and asked her to take steps to reunite her daughter with him.
At the coercion of the accused, the victim went with him to his house. On the way, the accused consumed alcoholic beverages and allegedly raped the woman three times.

The woman informed her daughter about the alleged incident and then filed a police complaint.

The man in the appeal claimed it was a consensual sexual relationship and was involved in a fake rape case.

However, the High Court refused to accept this contention and said that the victim at the time of the incident was 55 years old and would not invite such stigma on her character by making false allegations.

“Reporting such a problem to the police invites stigmatizing consequences. If it was a consensual act, then she would not have reported the incident to the police at all. If it was a consensual act then they would not have even disclosed the same. to her daughter,” HC said.