Chennai: The mahila court in Chennai sentenced a 29-year-old worker who refused to marry a girl after going through a betrothal ceremony, to undergo five years rigorous imprisonment on the charge of cheating her. Promising to marry her, V. Thennarasu, 29, of Ayanavaram, engaged in sexual relations with the girl for more than a year before breaking off the engagement.
Thennarasu and his friend Sivakumar were working in a steel furniture manufacturing company in 2007. Thennarasu used to visit the houses of Sivakumar and his aunt, Sumathi (name changed) regularly, and became friends with Sumathi’s daughter, Ramya (name changed). After a few months, they became lovers. When members of both families came to know about their love affair, they decided to get them married and conducted an engagement ceremony on June 14, 2009.
Thennasaru and his family proposed to organise their marriage in six months. Meanwhile, Thennarasu forced the girl into sexual intimacy. Six month later, he refused to meet her and also stopped talking about the wedding. When she asked him about the wedding, Thennarasu replied that his father, M. Velayutham, 63, was against their marriage since her mother runs a roadside eatery and cannot pay dowry. He also informed her that his father had fixed another girl for him, whose family was willing to pay him a hefty sum as dowry.
Depressed over this, she filed a complaint with the commissioner of police and based on the CoP’s direction, women police attempted to resolve the issue. When Thennarasu failed to report to the police, Ramya lodged a complaint with the Ayanavaram police station where the police registered a case against Thennarasu under sections 376 (punishment for rape) and 420 (cheating). Judge Meena Sathish said, “The prosecution has proved the case beyond doubt against Thennarasu under section 420 of IPC”, and directed Thennarasu to also pay a fine of Rs5,000.
