In a sensational ruling, the Supreme Court of India has stated that if a man has consensual sex with a woman promising to marry her and then goes back on his words it will also be considered as rape and is punishable with rigorous imprisonment.

The observation was made in a case registered by a woman in Koni, Bilaspur who lodged a complaint against a Chhattisgarh doctor with whom she had a love affair and also a sexual relationship.  The man had promised to marry her and both the families too knew about it.  However, he was actually engaged to another girl and he married her.  The Supreme Court has upheld that the man had committed rape and confirmed ten years of rigorous imprisonment to him and later reduced it to seven years.

According to the judges "Rape is the most morally and physically reprehensible crime in a society, an assault on the body, mind, and privacy of the victim. While a murderer destroys the physical frame of the victim, a rapist degrades and defiles the soul of a helpless female. Rape reduces a woman to an animal, as it shakes the very core of her life.”