Man acquitted in case of raping minor girl as victim and her father recant allegations

Thane, Jul 13 (PTI) A Thane court has acquitted a man accused of kidnapping and raping a minor girl in 2020, noting the victim affirmed their relationship was consensual and her father also said he had no complaint against him.
    The victim had married the accused and they have two children, special POCSO court judge D S Deshmukh observed in the order passed on July 9, a copy of which was made available on Saturday.
    The court cited a complete lack of support for the prosecution's case from both the victim and her father.

    The 25-year-old man, hailing from Jharkhand, was accused of kidnapping and raping the girl, resident of Bhayander area in Maharashtra's Thane district, on January 2, 2020.
    The girl's father lodged a missing person's complaint with the Bhayander police on January 4, 2020, stating his 15-year-old daughter had left home and not returned.

    The man was subsequently booked on charges of rape and kidnapping under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.


    However, during the trial, the victim and her father contradicted the initial police report.


    The court established the victim was a "child" under the POCSO Act, based on her stated birth date of June 15, 2004, and an age estimation report from the state-run J J Hospital in Mumbai, which placed her age between 16 and 17 years at the time of the incident.

    The judge noted that the prosecution witness (girl's father) admitted that the victim fled with the accused on her own wish.
    They had a love affair and the accused did not have forcible sexual relations with the witness's daughter, he noted.
    "He (witness) also admitted that the accused and victim are husband and wife, they have two children and are residing happily. He has no complaint against the accused," the court said.

    The victim also affirmed a consensual relationship.
    Her testimony indicates that she and the accused had a love affair. They used to talk on mobile phone and when her mother came to know about their love affair, she stopped her from going to school, the court said.
    The girl wanted to marry the accused. Therefore, on January 2, 2020, under the pretext of going to bathroom, she went out of the house, met the accused and they both went to Patna, it noted.
    "There, they got married and they had physical relations with her consent," it said.
     The victim further admitted in her cross-examination that the "accused is her husband, they have two children and she has no complaint against him," the court said.

    The victim's entire evidence supporting the accused instead of the prosecution, it observed.
    Therefore, her testimony is not of any use to the prosecution to prove its case, the court said.


    "However, considering her entire evidence, statement u/sec 164 of CrPC, and considering that at the time of incident she was 17 years old, means she has attained the age of understanding the nature and consequences of act she indulged in, the accused can not be held guilty of the commission of offence," it said.

    "Both the prime witnesses have not supported the prosecution story at all. The victim got married with the accused, they have two children and she has no grievance against the accused. In such circumstances, there is nothing on record to prove the guilt of the accused," the court said.
     It further stated that foundational facts to attract presumptions of the POCSO Act were not proven.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)