MANUSANKAR Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is the accused in Crime No. 1018 of 2023 of Perumbavoor Police Station alleging the commission of offences under Ss. 495, 376 of the Indian Penal Code and Sec. 66E of the Information Technology Act. The prosecution case is that the petitioner married the defacto complainant on 12/3/2022 by suppressing the fact that the petitioner/accused had a subsisting marriage and thereafter he lived along with the defacto complainant. It is alleged that the petitioner had engaged in sexual relationships with the defacto complainant and had also taken her nude pictures and videos and threatened to publish the same.

(2.) The learned Counsel appearing for the petitioner has placed before me the certified copy of the First Information Statement given by the defacto complainant which, according to him shows that the relationship between the petitioner and the defacto complainant was purely consensual. It is submitted that even in the FIR itself, it is clearly stated that the petitioner got married to the defacto complainant on 12/3/2022 and they lived together in a rented house at Perumbavoor as husband and wife till 25/6/2023. It is submitted that the allegation that the petitioner threatened the defacto complainant that he would publish her nude photographs etc., is nothing but an attempt to foister a false case on the petitioner. It is submitted that the petitioner was arrested on 9/8/2023 and further detention of the petitioner is not necessary in the facts and circumstances of the case.

(3.) The learned Public Prosecutor, on instruction, would submit that even if the case of the petitioner that he was in a consensual relationship is to be accepted, it according to the defacto complainant the petitioner had threatened to publish her nude pictures and videos. It is also pointed out that according to the defacto complainant, the petitioner had entered into a marriage with her after informing her that his earlier marriage had been dissolved and he had thereafter compelled the defacto complainant to enter into a sexual relationship by falsely projecting himself as an unmarried person. It is submitted that the act of the petitioner is clearly illegal.