Failed relationship cannot by itself turn consensual intimacy into rape: SC

Parmod Kumar New Delhi, Oct 30 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Friday cautioned against the growing tendency to turn failed relationships into criminal cases, observing that consensual physical intimacy cannot retrospectively be termed rape merely because a relationship has broken down. A bench comprising Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan made the observation while discharging Kerala resident Santosh Kumar N P, accused of rape and cheating, The court drew a distinction between consent secured through deliberate deception and a consensual relationship which subsequently fails, holding that intimacy during the subsistence of a relationship cannot later be criminalised merely because…