Court shows leniency to youth 'mad in love'

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Recalling an English saying that 'one cannot love and be wise,' a Delhi court has spared jail term to a 21-year-old youth, held guilty of kidnapping a minor girl, who had eloped with him.

After convicting Delhi resident Deepu Kumar, Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Virender Bhat sentenced him to a day-long detention in court room itself and then let him off. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on him.

"One cannot love and be wise," said the court, referring to English author Lord Khoen's writing, while letting off the youth.

"One becomes mad in love and cannot be expected to think rationally," ASJ Bhat said adding the convict's plight and circumstances 'are very well understandable'.

The court was referring to the love-lorn youth's decision to elope with the girl, believing her version that she was not a minor and landed in trouble.

"It is apparent from the record that the convict and prosecutrix were in love with each other and in fact the prosecutrix (girl) had insisted upon the convict to perform a run-away marriage with her," the court said.

The court said 'the only thing' that went wrong was that the girl was below 18 years of age but the boy could not blamed as she had not revealed her true age to him.

"For that also, the convict cannot be blamed as the girl had revealed her age to be 19 years at that time. The convict did not take care to verify the age of the prosecutrix and thus, landed in trouble," the court said.

"One cannot love and be wise.... He had no choice but to believe his beloved that she is major," the court added.

The prosecution had alleged that the boy had kidnapped the minor girl in January 2011 to marry her forcefully.

The girl, however, had deposed she was in love with the boy and got married to him on her own will.

The court noted the boy was convicted only after his pleading guilty to the charges framed against him.