Sep 13, 2012: Techie held on charges of rape

TNN | Sep 13, 2012, 01.46AM IST

COIMBATORE: A software engineer was arrested here on Wednesday night on charges of rape. Police said both the accused and victim hailed from Sivaganga district and had been in love for the past nine years. They had been living together in a rented house near Ganapathy for the past four years.

According to police, the software engineer backtracked from his promise of marrying the victim and had been absconding for the past three months.

The victim, R Rani (27) (name changed), native of Kabilan Street in Sivaganga district lodged a complaint where she said R David (28) (name changed) of the same area had completed his schooling along with her at Sivaganga district. They had been in love since class XII. Later, Rani moved to Coimbatore to pursue homeopathy and Daniel joined a private engineering college at Kovilpatti in Thoothukudi district.

She completed her homeopathy course in 2004 and was working in a homeopathy clinic in the city, residing in a rented house at Ganapathy. Meanwhile, Daniel completed his engineering course and got a job with a software firm in Chennai. He often visited Coimbatore to meet Rani and stayed with her.

On January 14, 2008, a ceremony was held in the presence of their friends at Thanjavur where Rani and David exchanged rings. Based on his request, Rani converted to Christianity. For the last four years they were in a live-in relationship.

However, David started avoiding Rani for the past three months and did not even attend to her phone calls. He seized the ring he had given her and stopped visiting Coimbatore altogether. He told Rani that he was trying to get a job abroad as his family had found a bride for him.

On Tuesday night, Rani lodged a police complaint with the Sarvanampatti police, who registered a case against Daniel under section 496 (marriage ceremony fraudulently gone through without lawful marriage), 493 (cohabitation caused by a man deceitfully inducing a belief of lawful marriage), 376 (punishment for rape) and 417 (punishment for cheating) of IPC.
Link: Techie held on charges of rape