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A man who allegedly drugged and raped his wife has been acquitted after a judge confirmed Indian rape laws do not apply to married couples. Feminist campaigners said the judgment highlighted the failure of Indianlaw to protect the majority of women in the country – those who are married – from being raped or their right to refuse to have sex with their husbands. In this latest case, the women, whose identity was not revealed, claimed her marriage was illegal and had been conducted against her will after she had been sedated. A man, identified only as Vikash, had taken her to a registry office in Ghaziabad, just outside New Delhi, in March last year where he forced her to sign a marriage certificate while she was intoxicated. He later raped her and then fled, she alleged. The accused denied drugging the woman or raping her and said their marriage had been consensual. She had only alleged rape six months after their marriage when they became involved in a property dispute. In his judgment, Judge Virender Bhat said there was no evidence Vikash had drugged his wife or forced her to marry him but even if he had forced the complainant to have sex with him, it would not be a crime under Indian law. "The prosecutrix (the wife) and the accused (Vikash) being legally wedded husband and wife, and the prosecutrix being major, the sexual intercourse between the two, even if forcible, is not rape and no culpability can be fastened upon the accused", the court ruled. | 
