Accused rapist escorted by Mumbai police flees

[Recursion]

This is Keystone Cops stuff

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-rape-accused-escorted-by-mumbai-police-flees-1938938

A rape accused is escorted by two unarmed constables. While one of the constables gets into a cab, the accused pushes the other constable and flees. Callousness on the part of the Mumbai police resulted in Air India crew member Raj Patel, 22, escaping after being brought for a medical examination at the Nagpada police hospital on Friday night.

Patel, a resident of Borivli, was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly raping and sodomising a 21-year-old event management graduate after making false promises of marriage. The police said he refused to marry her after she became pregnant.

The Air India employee was brought to the Nagpada police hospital in a cab from Borivli on Friday evening. He was accompanied by two unarmed constables from the Borivli police station. Once the medical examination was complete, the trio waited for a cab outside the hospital. “A constable got into the cab first even as the other held Patel’s hand. Taking advantage of the situation, Patel forcefully pushed the constable, and ran into the crowd,” a police officer said.

The police launched a massive manhunt after the incident, but Patel was untraceable till Saturday. “An inquiry has been initiated against the two constables for dereliction of duty. After the medical examination, Patel should have been handcuffed,” a senior police officer told dna.

[firsttimer]

1. So it's because he's refusing to marry her he is being charged with rape?

The article is screwy

[BainsBane]

2. He is charged with rape because he is accused of raping her

India has a misogynistic law that allows men to get away with rape if they marry their victims.

[firsttimer]

6. That's one of the craziest things I ever heard

[BainsBane]

7. Indeed, but it was once the law

throughout most of the Western world.

[Recursion]

9. Still is some places in the US, too

Rape by false pretenses, or something like that.

[BainsBane]

10. I don't believe that is the same

It sounds like a law that makes it illegal to convince a woman to have sex by promising to marry her. The Indian law, and earlier Western laws, allowed men to get away with rape if they married the girl. Both kinds of laws are meant to preserve the honor of families, but the Indian law provides a way for men to avoid prosecution.


Do you know of any recent prosecutions for rape by false pretenses?

[Recursion]

8. "Rape by false pretense" is still on the books in some US states

Somebody was charged with it I think in VA not too long ago.

[BainsBane]

11. There is a fascinating history concerning sexual assault

In nineteenth-century Brazil, there were two types of assault: deflowering a virgin and abducting a woman for illicit purposes. A woman who was not chaste or under the patronage of a respected man (read landed and prosperous) could not be raped under Brazilian law.

[Recursion]

12. Even today in MA, statutory rape only applies to "women of virtue"

If she's over 14, and not a virgin, the law as it stands says it's not statutory rape (somebody successfully argued that a few years ago).