Delhi High Court has acquitted a accused of rape and house breaking. The court said that at the time of the incident the girl was of age to give consent and the relationship was consensual. The court also observed that when the accused ran away from home, the girl also followed him.
New Delhi [भारत]July 25 (ANI): Delhi High Court has acquitted a man guilty of rape and house intrusion. The High Court, setting aside the order of the lower court, acquitted Dildar of the crimes of sections 376 (rape) and 457 (trespassing at night) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The case pertains to an FIR lodged at Nand Nagri police station in 2012.
Justice Vimal Kumar Yadav accepted Dildar’s appeal against the lower court’s verdict and acquitted him. The High Court ruled that the victim was above the age of consent at the time of the incident and the physical relationship was consensual.
What was the whole matter?
Justice Yadav said, “The presence of a stranger, that too in the dark of the night, was enough to set off alarm bells. However, it turned out that the stranger was a stranger to the lady of the house, but not to her daughter (the victim) in this case.”
The court said that on the intervening night of September 1 and 2, 2012, the mother found a stranger inside the house and confronted him. “The stranger fled from the spot, but strangely his daughter also followed him,” Justice Yadav said in the July 24 judgment.
The Appellant and the victim then stayed at different places, including a night shelter, a forest and possibly the house of the Appellant’s brother, before being apprehended by the police.
The prosecution failed to prove the charges.
The trial court had convicted the appellant and sentenced him to seven years’ simple imprisonment for rape and four years’ simple imprisonment for house intrusion. However, the High Court held that the prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt.
Concluding that the victim was a consenting party and legally capable of giving consent, the Court vacated the lower court’s judgment and acquitted the Appellant of all charges.
Advocates Rajat Mishra and Himanshu Yadav appeared on behalf of the appellant. It was argued on behalf of the Appellant that the victim was above 16 years of age on the date of the incident and hence she was legally capable of giving consent to sexual intercourse under the pre-amended provisions of Section 375 of the IPC, which would not amount to rape. To prove this contention, the defense relied on the medical and educational records of the victim, which showed her date of birth as August 27, 1996. Since the incident occurred on September 2, 2012, the defense argued that she was 16 years and six days old at the time of the incident. (ANI)
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