Cour acquits four men accused of raping minor

A Delhi court has acquitted four persons in a case of alleged kidnap and rape of a minor, holding that the victim had of her own accord accompanied the accused persons and established physical relationship with one of them.

The police had charged only one of the accused for sexually assaulting the victim.

Additional Sessions Judge Umed Singh Grewal set all the accused free, holding that the victim was a major at the time of the incident in 2008 and had gone with them willingly.

Victim’s age

“As per MLC of the prosecutrix, her secondary sexual characters were well developed. It shows that victim was either major or on the verge of attaining majority. Even in that eventuality, the investigating officer did not conduct her ossification test for determining the age,” the judge said.

“The victim and her parents admitted that the prosecutrix had attended school up to fifth class but the strange thing is that the prosecution did not place on record any birth certificate/admission and withdrawal forms issued by the school. The reason of non-production of such material document may be that such record was going against the prosecution. So, adverse inference is drawn against the state,” the judge further said.

The prosecution alleged that after kidnapping the victim, the accused persons had taken her to Gorakhpur, brought back to Delhi and confined her in a school for five-six days.

Dismissing the allegation, the judge said that “the victim had herself accompanied the accused persons not only to the place where they went but also to Gorakhpur and back to Delhi”.

“In view of the above discussion, it is held that the victim had accompanied accused persons with her sweet will. Either she was not raped or if she had physical relations with accused, it had taken place with her consent”