Consensual sex on false promise : Does it amount to rape?
- Imphal Times Editorial :: September 01 2018 -

The rise in sexual related crime against minor girls in the last few days is worrisome incident.

And what is more worrying is the dilemma in reporting such news report by media – as the objective of the report is to punish whoever committed the gruesome, inhuman crime and to save the victims.

That is why – Journalism ethics directed to conceal the identity of the rape victims no matter she is a minor or matured girl.

May be it was the trust deficit to the side of the law enforcers or the judiciary that people in Manipur still can’t keep silence if any such crime was reported to have committed, locality always formed some kind of committee and take the law to their hand.

Sometimes if the rapists are found there is no way that he would be spared by the wrath of the people.

Even the crime committed by the accused had to be bear by his family members as the kind of crime cannot be tolerated at any cost.

Today’s Manipur show much such crime on the rise.

In 2015, an NGO reported as many as 29 rape case, 7 attempt to rape case, 4 rape and murder case, 2 molest case etc.

The number this year has increase as more victims started having confidence.

Well almost all reporters while submitting their reports on rape related crime, name of the victims has always been concealed.

Saying so some victim who decided to be name was given the privilege.

Early 80s, when the bollyhood movie reached its peak, rape scene was different.

Acting of the Hindi Movie legend antagonist Prem Choapra and Ranjits’ acting of raping girl were most common.

Time changes so first, technologies have over shadow the factious movie with multiple real stories and prone site available in the internet.

Force rape is committed by only some computer illiterate who has animals’ instinct.

But those psychopathic computers literate keep continuing the rape crime with another means.

They lured young women using any means and have illicit sex (crime) by making false promises.

As per report so far reached to Imphal Times, the number of young girl being spoil on false promised by married man who posed as unmarried reached nearly 10.

The number may be many. The only things is that these victims of rapists fear unwanted consequences if they disclosed everything that had happened due to the complex Manipuri traditions.

Now the question is - Can consensual sex be retrospectively called rape if the promise of marriage is breached?

Is this about a man deceiving a woman by making false promises? If so, would it be a case of rape, or of cheating?

For some, such cases categorically fall under rape, not cheating.

“There is a need to understand the notions of passive submission and wrongfully obtained – even if not physically forcefully obtained – consent,” said activist and lawyer Kamayani Bali Mahabal.

“If the man promised marriage to get consent, he knew the power of the ‘promise to marry’, and he obviously also knew how breaking that promise could affect the woman.”

In the Indian context, this could mean severe social stigma and economic disadvantages, particularly in cases where women become pregnant.

Technically, there is no clause in the Indian Penal Code that specifically labels the breach of a marriage promise as rape.

Section 90, while defining “consent” in general, states that if consent is given “under a misconception of fact” and if the perpetrator is aware of this, then it cannot be deemed as consent.

Courts across the country often use this section of the Indian Penal Code to interpret cases of rape and breach of promise.

Courts also tend to invoke Section 375 (4), according to which a man is said to commit rape on a woman if he “knows that he is not her husband, and that her consent is given because she believes that he is another man to whom she is or believes herself to be lawfully married”.

Over the years, courts have come up with varying judgements, although most tend to interpret breach of promise as rape.

In November 2013, for instance, the Supreme Court awarded life imprisonment to a man from Muzaffarnagar for having sexual relations with a woman for two years by leading her to believe he would marry her.

By not eventually marrying her, the Court ruled that the man had committed a “breach of trust” and used her body as a “plaything”.

There are times, however, when courts have acquitted men of rape charges or classified such cases as cheating.

The bone of contention for feminists is the perception of consent in cases of breach of promise.

“The assumption in Manipuri society is that women are raised to think they can only have sex within marriage, and that they would never give their consent if marriage was not on the horizon”.

Now, it is time that the society discussed about this issue of new trend rape to safe the future daughters of our state.