India, Oct. 1 -- Calling the case an "afterthought" and "a vehicle for vengeance", the Supreme Court has quashed the FIR and chargesheet against a man accused of "rape on the pretext of marriage".

The bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N Kotiswar Singh recently set aside a Madhya Pradesh High Court order that had refused to quash the proceedings, as per a report by news agency ANI.

The SC noted that at the time of the alleged crime, the woman and the man were colleagues - she was a computer operator, he was a revenue inspector in the local municipal corporation.

She filed the case only after she was issued a showcause notice when the man approached superior officers with a complaint against her. He had said in his representations that ...