BRB A HABJAEL NNU ADRRKAAR DBBD10 AHi a g :t BA 0 i e tL 7 N: a U :2 lA 1 l 0 y 1 RR 2 sKA +6 iAgJ .0 E 0 nR 53 Ne 3. dD 10 3 bRyA

Order on Board

1. Heard Mr.H.S.Ahluwalia, learned counsel for the applicant as well as Mr.S.S.Baghel, learned Government Advocate appearing for respondent No.1/State.

2. The applicant has filed this petition under Section 528 of the BNSS with following reliefs:-

“Hence prayed that the Hon'ble Court be please to quash the F.I.R. bearing Crime No. 332/2025 dated 09/06/2025 registered under Section 376(2-n) of the Indian Penal Code at Police Station Gandhi Nagar, District Sarguja (C.G.), along with quashment of the charge-sheet No. 232/2025 dated 09/07/2025 filed pursuant thereto and the cognizance order dated 04/09/2025 passed by the learned Session Judge, Ambikapur, Dist- Sarguja in Sessions Trial No. 138/2025 and all consequential criminal proceedings arising therefrom pending before Additional Session Judge (FTC), Ambikapur, Dist- Sarguja., in exercising the inherent powers under section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 in the interest of justice.”

3. Brief facts of the case are that the applicant has been falsely implicated in the present matter due to personal differences arising out of a failed consensual relationship. The families of the victim and the applicant shared a close-knit social relationship and use to visiting each other's residences. The applicant and the victim came into contact with each other in the year 2019. Significantly both the parties were adults at the relevant time. Their acquaintance gradually developed into a voluntary romantic relationship. From the year 2019 onwards, both the applicant and the victim were in regular and sustained communication through calls and WhatsApp chats. The said communications unambiguously establish mutual affection, voluntary emotional attachment, and consensual Intimacy. In October 2019, the parties met at Ambikapur, wherein physical relations were established between them. It is submitted that the said physical intimacy was entirely consensual in nature arising organically out of the mutual love and emotional bonding shared between two consenting adults, and was not the product of any misrepresentation, force, or false promise.

4. It is a matter of significant importance that from the year 2019 until June 2025, the victim never lodged any complaint, grievance, or representation before the Police, Women Cell, any Judicial Forum, or even before any family member through legal recourse. Such prolonged and inexplicable inaction is wholly incompatible with the conduct of a victim who has been subjected to sexual assault or criminal coercion. The FIR in question was registered on 09.06.2025, after an inordinate, unexplained, and extraordinary delay of nearly six years from the date of the alleged first incident. The FIR is conspicuously silent with regard to any explanation for this exceptional delay. Critically, there is no allegation in the FIR or charge-sheet that the applicant was subjecting the victim to continuous threats, intimidation, or coercion during the Intervening period, nor has any material been placed on record to justify the victim’s silence for period extending over six years. Such delay, standing unexplained on the face of record, is itself a compelling circumstance warranting judicial scrutiny. Hence, this petition.

5. Learned counsel for the applicant submits that the impugned FIR and charge-sheet do not disclose the essential ingredients constituting the offence under Section 376 (2)(n) IPC. Even if the entire prosecution case is accepted at face value, the allegations disclose a consensual relationship between two adults and do not prima facie establish absence of consent. The fundamental ingredient of "against her will" or "without her consent" is conspicuously absent from the material collected during investigation. He further submits that the alleged first incident pertains to Octob