Sexual relations between a legally wedded husband and wife, “even if forcible, is not rape”, a Delhi court has said while acquitting a youth who was accused of marrying a 21-year-old girl after serving her a sedative-laced drink and raping her.

“It is evident that the prosecutrix (girl) had willingly and in full senses solemnised her marriage with the accused and the marriage was registered in the office of Registrar of Marriages, Ghaziabad, on March 4, 2013. The parties engaged in physical relations with each other after the marriage.

“The girl was more than 21-years-old at the time. Thus the girl and accused being legally-wedded husband and wife and the girl being a major, the sexual intercourse between the two, even if forcible, is not rape and no culpability can be fastened upon the youth,” Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat said while absolving the youth of the charge of rape.

In the FIR, the girl had alleged that she came in contact with the accused, a UP resident, while working with a coaching centre in Delhi in 2013.

She had further told police that one day, the accused along with his father had given her a spiked drink which made her lose consciousness whereupon they took her to “the (said) registrar’s office at Ghaziabad and got the marriage documents signed by her”.

Thereafter, the girl had alleged, the accused committed rape upon her and left her with the threat that in case she disclosed the incident to anybody, they would not spare her.

She had also said that the accused in September, 2013, had even committed unnatural sex with her on several occasions.

The court, however, turned down the girl’s allegations and said, “There is no clinching or convincing evidence on record to show that the accused had administered any stupefying substance to the prosecutrix before taking her to the Ghaziabad court.

“The prosecutrix has nowhere deposed in her testimony that the accused had committed (unnatural sex) with her. The prosecution has, therefore, failed to establish the guilt of the accused.”

During the trial, the accused denied all the allegations levelled against him and pleaded innocence saying the marriage was solemnised in February, 2011, but he was framed in the case as the girl’s parents were against it.

Senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi raised eyebrows today as he contradicted his own party on Narendra Modi’s Congress rival in Varanasi, Ajay Rai, against whom an FIR or First Information Report has been filed for poll violation.

Mr. Rai was seen wearing his party’s symbol, the hand, while standing in the voting queue.

Though the BJP demanded strict action against the Congress candidate, Mr. Joshi described Mr. Rai’s alleged violation as a minor issue. “It is not a big deal. Everyone takes their hand into the poll booth, should they cut it off?” questioned the BJP veteran, who contested from Kanpur after making way for Mr. Modi in Varanasi, which he had won in 2009.

Mr. Rai is the third prominent candidate in Varanasi, where the main contest is seen to be between Mr. Modi, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, and Arvind Kejriwal, the chief of the Aam Aadmi Party.

On April 30, the Commission had ordered an FIR or First Information Report against Mr. Modi for flashing his party’s symbol, the lotus, and making a speech near the booth in Gandhinagar where he voted.

The BJP, in the middle of a bitter confrontation with the Election Commission over the refusal of permission for Mr. Modi’s rally in Varanasi last week, used the Ajay Rai controversy to deliver a caustic message.

“We would like the Election Commission to ensure that when there is a violation of Model Code of Conduct, it must be properly take into the logical conclusion. So that there is no impression that different parties are being treated differently, that is our great agony,” said senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Mr. Rai was defensive. “I didn’t flash it like others did,” he said, not naming Mr. Modi, “the symbol was pinned to the kurta I wore yesterday and it stayed on. I wore it very normally.”

Parties like the CPM and the BJP have accused ruling Trinamool Congress workers of intimidating voters as 17 of West Bengal’s 42 constituencies vote today, in a phase crucial for Mamata Banerjee.

As in previous phases, the state has seen a good voter turnout at 67.34 per cent by 3 pm, amid reports of violence. Four people were shot at on their way to a polling station in Basirhat constituency, 40 km from Kolkata, and about a dozen others allegedly suffered knife injuries.

A BJP councillor alleged that bombs were hurled at her as she returned from voting. She was unhurt but livid, accusing the Trinamool of trying to scare away voters.

Senior CPM leader Sitaram Yechury tweeted, “Armed attacks by (Trinamool) goons leaves 22 CPI-M workers seriously injured, 4 with bullet wounds. Central forces mere onlookers!!”

But the Trinamool alleged that it was the Left’s activists that had injured 11 of its workers. Accusing the media of exaggerated reports, Trinamool MP Derek O’Brien tweeted, “People are voting peacefully, fearlessly, wholeheartedly in Bengal. 2 local TV channels with ‘agendas’ making a mountain out of a molehill (sic).”

Mamata Banerjee’s party won 14 of its 19 seats from the region in and around Kolkata, that is voting. The CPM had won none. The other three seats were taken by the CPI, the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) and the Congress, which was then Mamata Banerjee’s partner.

A student of LKG in Gwalior Jaitra Sharma has become the second Google boy after Haryana’s Kautilya Pandit.

Just like Kautilya, he possesses a sound knowledge of planets and solar system. Four-year-old Jaitra, also has the names of capitals of all the countries across the world on his fingertips. He identifies the places on the world map in seconds.

Born on September 28, 2009, Jaitra has mastered Chemistry’s periodic table that is usually taught to Class 11 students at a tender age of 4.

In an interview to a newspaper, Jaitra’s mother Shikha said,” We did not know about his talent to grasp things quickly. As he grew up, I learnt of it. His father then started teaching him. His memory is very sharp, he doesn’t forget anything.”

Earlier, Kautilya who hails from Kharhar village in Jhajjar district, came to be known as the Google boy after he learnt by rote information relating to geographical borders, planets in space, mineral resources when he was five years eight month old and studying in Class 1.

During an interview to a TV channel, a question-answer session was conducted with celebrities like Shivani Kashyap asking him questions to check his IQ. Kautilya replied to most of the questions correctly, with minor mistakes.

His father Satish Sharma and grandfather were present, as their son faced a barrage of questions.

Neurologist Dr Kapil Singhal, who was present at the live show, said, Kautilya possessed an IQ of above 150, same as was possessed by famous scientist Albert Einstein. “His analytical powers are very good and made me spellbound”, said Dr Singhal.