India, May 12 -- A sessions court in Maharashtra's Thane district has acquitted a 33-year-old man accused of rape and cheating, holding that a long-term sexual relationship based on a promise of marriage cannot be construed as rape if it was consensual right from the start.

Additional sessions judge Ruby U Malvankar cleared the accused, Shahbaz Mohammad Salim Khan, a resident of Mumbra, of all charges of rape and cheating under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

A copy of the order dated May 2 was made available on Sunday. The prosecution alleged that Khan had befriended the survivor, a divorcee with two daughters, while they were working at a mall in Thane.

He established sexual relations with her between 2016 and 2018 with the promise of m...