After 10 years, two men acquitted as woman retracts rape allegation

Noida: Two men from Jewar, who had been accused of rape a decade ago, were acquitted by a special Pocso court on Monday after the complainant retracted her statement. She denied being threatened and raped by the men, claiming that when she made the complaint, she was 20 years old, an adult. Her mother admitted that their family had a long-standing enmity with the accused and a related case was pending in court.An FIR was registered at the Jewar police station by a woman on March 1, 2016. She had told police that two men, Sonu and Zakir, had come to her house the previous night when she was alone. Her parents had gone next door to attend to her ailing grandfather. Sonu allegedly mixed an intoxicant in milk and forced her to drink it. After she fell into a stupor, Zakir took her to a nearby courtyard and raped her at gunpoint. She raised an alarm and her parents rushed back. The men fled. In her complaint, she mentioned her age as 16.
The FIR was registered under sections 452 (house trespass), 328 (hurting by poison), 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC. Police filed a charge sheet on Sept 21 the same year and charges were framed on Sept 27. During the trial, the prosecution presented three witnesses — the complainant and her parents. She told the court that she had not seen either man enter her house or mix anything in a glass of milk.When cross-examined about her statement given to the magistrate and police, she said she was illiterate and had simply put her thumb impression on a paper without knowing its contents. She told the court the two men were her neighbours but denied that they ever sexually assaulted her. The prosecution declared her and her father hostile. The mother partially supported the prosecution's story, but when cross-examined by the defence, she admitted she did not see Zakir fleeing. She also admitted there was a criminal case pending in the court arising out of a quarrel between her husband and Zakir's father a couple of years before the incident. Her husband and brother-in-law were named as accused in that case. She, however, denied registering a false case against the two men out of vengeance.The court pointed out that the doctor's report did not confirm sexual assault on the victim. "It is clearly mentioned that no injury was seen on the body of the victim in her internal and external medical examination. Thereby, the alleged offence of rape does not get corroboration," Judge Vikas Nagar noted. He said, based on the evidence and the testimonies, it was not proved that the men had committed the offence of house trespass, and assaulted or raped the woman.Noting that the men were already out on bail, he acquitted them of all the charges, ordering them to furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000 each within a week. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Holi wishes, messages and quotes !