A Delhi court has acquitted the father of a 13-year-old girl of the charge of sexually assaulting her as the victim refused to support the allegation that she had levelled against him in the FIR.
The Class VIII student also refused to undergo gynaecological tests and back the allegation in her statement recorded before a Metropolitan Magistrate which is admissible as evidence in trial. Other prosecution witnesses whose statements the police had recorded also refused to support the prosecution case.
According to the prosecution case, the victim last year went to the police station concerned and lodged a complaint that her father had been digitally raping her for the past three-four years. She alleged that on July 13 last year she was playing outside her house. The accused called her inside the house but she did not listen to him, so he beat her. Thereafter, she went to the police station and made a statement to the police.
After being declared hostile, when Assistant Public Prosecutor in the case cross-examined her, she denied the allegation she had made in her complaint.
The police had charge-sheeted her father under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO). The court framed the charges against the accused but it dispensed with proceeding of recording his statement as there was no allegation against him.
Acquitting the man, Additional Sessions Judge Rajneesh Kumar Gupta said: “The prosecution has failed to prove its case against the accused. The accused in acquitted of the charge.”
