Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 20: 3rd Additional Sessions Judge Kishore Kumar today acquitted Sahil Verma from the charges of rape as prosecution miserably failed to prove its case.
While acquitting him, the judge, after hearing his counsel, observed that it was imperative to mention that now-a-days, there was a public outrage and a hue and cry was being raised that courts were not convicting the rape accused. However, no rape accused can be convicted if the witnesses, especially the victim and her parents, do not support the prosecution case or give the quality evidence as in the present case where the prosecutrix herself has resiled from her earlier statement made under section 164-A of CrPC, besides her father Anil Kumar. It should not be ignored that the court has to confine itself to the ambit of law and the contents of the file as well as the testimonies of the witnesses and the courts are not too swayed by emotions or report or publication in the media. Since the star witness and her father had resiled from their earlier statements made before the magistrate, the conviction of the accused was not possible in the circumstances of the case, the court observed.
The victim's father Anil Kumar had on March 28, 2015 approached police, alleging that his daughter had gone to see Shobha Yatra at about5 pm but did not came back home. On this, FIR No 20/2015 for the commission of offence under section 363 of RPC was registered and investigation of the case was entrusted to ASI Khursheed Hussein. From the statement of the prosecutrix, it was found that she had gone to see Shoba Yatra on the occasion of Ramnavmi when Sahil Verma, son of Yash Paul Verma of ward No 9, Nowshera, and Varun Kumar alias Kala, son of Amrit Lal of Dhanni Dhar, Rajouri, allegedly made her unconscious with a substance, kidnapped her and took her to Kala's house at Dhanni Dhara where they allegedly raped her at night. When she regained consciousness next morning, she threatened them to inform police, but they remained unfazed and allegedly raped her again. They also clicked her nude photographs with their mobile phones and threatened her that in case she disclosed the incident to anybody, they would flash her photographs on the internet and also kill her parents.
After the matter was brought to the police notice by the girl's father, police had registered a case against the accused under sections 363, 376, 201 and 34 of RPC, conducted a probe and then presented challan in the court. |
