A judgment that may serve to deter rapists from maligning a victim’s reputation, a city court has held that an accused was not permitted to raise questions on a victim’s character and defend himself by claiming that she was of easy virtue.

“The mere fact that she had a broken home or was wandering for a job does not give licence to anyone to treat her as a woman of easy virtue and violate her body,” said Additional Sessions Judge Gurdeep Singh.

Throwing out the defence of an accused duo in a case of attempted rape, the judge further held that the manner in which a woman decided to live was not material for a court to debate upon when the accusations pertained to breaching her right to live with dignity.

Bhajanlal and Irfan were made to stand trial for the offence of attempting to rape the woman. As per the prosecution, the woman, who was waiting for a taxi on March 17, 2004, was offered a lift by Bhajanlal near Raj Nagar in Ghaziabad.

Separated from her husband, the victim had gone to Ghaziabad court to meet her lawyers and it was dark by the time the meeting was over. She was reportedly staying at a guesthouse in Vivek Vihar.

After she agreed to sit in the car, Bhajanlal, a commercial driver, took the victim to a small eatery where Irfan joined him.

He subsequently drove the vehicle to a secluded place where the duo allegedly tried to rape her. According to the prosecution, they could not succeed as another vehicle came on the stretch and the victim raised alarm.

... contd.