On a petition seeking quashing of the FIR for serious crimes including rape on the ground of marriage between the two parties, the Delhi High Court said that the marriage between the petitioner and the defendant woman is prima facie not valid. The accused has assured the woman of its validity on the basis of Nikahnama.

Refusing to quash the FIR, Justice Swarn Kanta Sharma said the woman was illiterate and could only sign in Hindi. He had no knowledge of Urdu. According to the investigating officer, there were no documents available in the office records where the conversation and marriage took place between the two parties.

The court said that the person should be made aware of possible changes in his legal status after conversion. The court directed that an affidavit regarding the age, marital history, and marital status of both parties at the time of inter-religious marriage after conversion and evidence thereof should be obtained by the concerned authorities, except in cases of marriages performed under the Special Marriage Act.

The court also issued guidelines to be followed by a magistrate while recording the statement of a victim of sexual assault under CrPC-164. The court said that the statement of the victim should not be recorded mechanically or in a typed form.

The magistrate should interact with the victim by asking questions appropriate to his age and educational background to assess his ability to testify and give reasoned answers. The preliminary inquiry as well as the statements should be in the local language. Sexual violence should not be tolerated, but manipulation of the system by parties in such cases also needs to be dealt with strongly.

The entire case is related to rape and death threats, and the accused, Maqsood Ahmed, filed a petition demanding the cancellation of the FIR related to the case. The widowed woman had alleged that the accused was a friend of her husband. In September 2022, he came to her house and raped her after giving her an intoxicating cold drink. Even after this, he threatened her and raped her on many occasions.

However, the accused told a different story in the trial court during the bail plea hearing. He submitted that both of them had been in a live-in relationship since 2007 and a compromise was reached between them in April 2012. However, after six months, both of them started living as husband and wife again. However, after some time there was a dispute, and the woman lodged an FIR. Not only this, on October 28, 2022, both of them got married according to Muslim customs.