For conviction, it is important that all the necessary ingredients constituting an offense under the said Section must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt: Bombay High Court
The evidence does not prove that the accused had deceived or dishonestly, fraudulently, or intentionally induced the prosecutrix to enter into a sexual relationship under a false promise of marriage. Thus, the accused cannot be held liable under Section 415 of IPC, 1872. Such an opinion was held by the Hon’ble Bombay High Court before Hon’ble Justice SMT. ANUJA PRABHUDESSAI in the matter of Santoshkumar Surajbhan Goyal vs The State of Maharashtra and Anr. [CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.1097 OF 2003].
The facts of the case were that the accused was convicted under section 417 of IPC, 1872. It was the contention of the prosecutrix that the accused had induced her into entering into a sexual relationship under the false promise of marriage.
The Hon’ble Bombay High Court held that “the evidence does not prove that the accused had deceived or dishonestly, fraudulently or intentionally induced the prosecutrix to enter into a sexual relationship under a false promise of marriage. The prosecution has failed to establish the essential ingredients of ‘cheating’, conviction of the accused for an offense under Section 417 of the IPC cannot be sustained.”
Finally, the Hon’ble Bombay High Court allowed the appeal and quashed the impugned order.
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Judgment Reviewed by: Rohan Kumar Thakur