| Juvenile acquitted of kidnapping, rape charges | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, June 7: Chief Judicial Magistrate, Jammu, Sunit Gupta has acquitted a juvenile of the charges of kidnapping and rape of a 15-year-old school girl as the prosecution failed to bring home the guilt of the accused beyond all reasonable doubts.
The designated juvenile court, after hearing the two sides, observed that the court could not give undue weightage to the statement of the victim who had subsequently become hostile towards the accused at the time of deposing before the court. "We should also bear in mind that at the time of deposing before this court, she had attained the age of maturity, ie 23 years, and had also joined the profession of law as an advocate and by that time the accused had tied a weddding knot with one Meenu. Therefore, the hostile attitude of the prosecutrix towards the accused was well understandable, the court said.
The counsel for the accused submitted that from the circumstances narrated by the prosecutrix, one could easily smell out that she had accompanied the accused to different places out of her own free will and consent and there was no element of force on her. He also referred to her cross examination wherein she had admitted that at Amritsar Railway Station, she was separately frisked by lady police, but she had not preferred to disclose anything to them regarding the fact that the accused was forcibly taking her from place to place. From the perusal of letters she had written to her mother, it came to light that it was not the accused who had kidnapped her in any manner but the prosecutrix herself had compelled him to run away.
After referring to the entire evidence on file, particularly the statement of the prosecutrix, the judge dismissed the police challan and acquitted the accused of charges leveled against him. |
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