TN cops to pay rape victim for FIR delay

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court ordered compensation of Rs 1 lakh to a rape victim -- to be paid from the salaries of two police
officers, including a woman inspector, for delay in filing an FIR against the accused.

The petitioner, a 30-year-old woman from Valliyoor in Tirunelveli, said a man in her village had promised to marry her and taken in by his word, she had a sexual relationship with him. But later, his family refused to allow the marriage and demanded a dowry of Rs 1 lakh and 100 gold sovereigns. She was traumatized when the entire village came to know about her "illegitimate" relationship. By law, this amounted to a fraud that vitiated her consent.

Her father lodged a complaint with the Valliyoor police, but inspector K Kandasamy kept the complaint pending. It was only after 10 days that a woman inspector, A Maria Grace -- after much dithering and making the father run from pillar to post -- registered the FIR, charging the man under sections 417 of IPC (cheating) and 376 (rape).

Justice D Murugesan, before whom the petition came up for hearing, directed the DIG of police to initiate departmental action against the police officers and pay the compensation of Rs 1 lakh sought by the victim by recovering the money from the salaries of the two officers.

Refusing to agree with the woman inspector's contention that she had not filed the FIR on receiving the complaint only because the victim appeared before her two days after she was raped, Justice Murugesan said that Section 154(1) of the CrPC pertaining to filing of FIR does not specify that the affected person should come in person to lodge the complaint.