India News | Court Acquits Man Accused of Rape in 2018

New Delhi, Apr 8 (PTI) A court here has acquitted a man accused of committing rape in 2018, saying the complainant was an "unreliable witness" and apart from the alleged victim's sole testimony, there was no "corroborative evidence" in support of the allegation.

Additional Sessions Judge Snighdha Sarvaria was hearing a case against the man who was accused of raping the prosecutrix after spiking her soft drink on April 27, 2018.

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According to the prosecution, the accused, a dentist, had also filmed the act and threatened the victim saying he would make the video viral. In the following days, he had also allegedly made sexually-coloured remarks and obscene gestures towards her.

Underscoring that the prosecution's case hinged on the sole testimony of the complainant, the court analysed her statements at different stages of the trial, beginning from her complaint to her deposition in the examination-in-chief.

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The court said it was "crystal clear" that she made "material improvements and variations in every successive version" of her statement.

It said her "entire testimony was fraught with inconsistencies and self-contradictions", rendering it unfit to be accepted at "face value".

"The self-contradictory statements make her an unreliable witness," the court said.

It said if the accused had committed the alleged act of rape upon the prosecutrix, it was "highly improbable" that she would continue talking to him, much less meeting him.

It said the prosecutrix disclosed the alleged incident only when her statement was being recorded before a magistrate.

So her version was shrouded "under a veil of grave suspicion", the court observed.

It said there was no other eyewitness of the alleged incident nor was there any corroborative electronic evidence on record, such as CCTV footage, audio or video recordings and the alleged nude video of the prosecutrix.

"There is no medical or biological evidence against the accused," the court said.

"The prosecution has failed to establish its case against the accused beyond reasonable doubt.... The accused is acquitted of (all) charges," it said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)