The Madras High Court Bench here has set aside the conviction and five years of rigorous imprisonment imposed by a Mahila Court in Tirunelveli on an individual in January 2007 for having allegedly raped a six-year-old girl at Jothipuram near Palayamkottai bus stand in July 2005.
Allowing a criminal appeal filed by him, Justice P.R. Shivakumar held that a deep analysis of the prosecution case showed that the girl’s father had filed a false rape complaint in view of a long-pending dispute between him and the appellant over the ownership of a piece of land and other issues.
Question“A question may arise as to whether the mother and father of the child would risk the reputation of their daughter. But the child was aged only six years and her father’s antecedent of being a rape accused himself will make it probative that there could be no wonder in his making such allegations.
“The girl’s father had admitted that he faced a criminal case along with one Ravichandran for offences of rape and molestation. As such, he knows how to foist a case. If these aspects are corroborated with the defects in the evidence of the prosecution, any court will acquit the accused,” the judge said.
