Citing it as a classic illustration of abuse of the process of law, the Karnataka High Court quashed two criminal cases filed against a man by a woman, alleging ‘rape’ after being in a relationship for six years.

“It is not one, two, three, four, or five, but six years of consensual physical/sexual relationship between the petitioner and the complainant after having met through a social media platform. The complaint narrates all details… The allegation that is made later is, from Dec 27, 2019, the intimacy between the two waned…. Fading away of the intimacy after 6 years of consensual acts of sexual intercourse cannot mean that it would constitute ingredients of rape,” the court said.

The court passed the order while allowing a petition filed by one Girinath questioning the two separate complaints lodged against him by one Rajeshwari in Bengaluru and Davangere on the same set of charges.

The court also noted that the woman had entered into a similar consensual relationship with one Dhanush in 2013 and later lodged a criminal case, which ultimately ended in his acquittal in 2016 after she herself turned hostile.

“If the trial of such cases is permitted to continue, then it would be putting a premium on the activities of the complainant woman and her effort to abuse the process of law over and over,” the court said.

After registering the first complaint against the petitioner in Bengaluru, the woman went to Davangere, the native city of the petitioner, and lodged another complaint, claiming that he “raped and cheated” her again after the registration of the first case.

The petitioner had said that the woman was in the habit of developing relationships with men in the guise of friendship and later blackmailing them by registering a complaint.