E-Paper
Chandigarh Sector-55 man accused of raping teen let off
While the victim had turned hostile in court, prosecution relied on medical evidence to prove that the accused raped the girl as he was the biological father of the fetus taken out from her womb following medical termination of her pregnancy
The fast track special court headed by additional sessions judge Yashika acquitted the accused in a two-year-old rape case of a 19-year-old girl due to lack of evidence. As per the prosecution, the accused Vibaash, a resident of Pulsora in Sector 55, raped the girl and impregnated her.
While the victim had turned hostile in court, prosecution relied on medical evidence to prove that the accused raped the girl as he was the biological father of the fetus taken out from her womb following medical termination of her pregnancy. However, the court stated that the medical evidence is unsupportive as the victim has denied that the accused raped her or was the father of her biological child.
“It is crystal clear that the prosecution has miserably failed to discharge the requisite onus beyond the shadow of reasonable doubt,” said the court.
The girl stated in her complaint in January, 2023, that the accused who was a carpenter had come to her house and made forcible physical relations with her. When she resisted, he threatened to kill her. After some days, he again came to her house and again made forcible physical relations with her. Due to the forcible relations, he had made her pregnant. The case was registered in 2023.
“The prosecutrix is a major woman who had stated before the court regarding CFSL report that said conception was of her husband, therefore, in these circumstances, when the ocular version of the prosecutrix is not in consonance with the CFSL report, therefore, it would be unsafe to give weightage to it. Otherwise also, this court is of the considered view that evidence adduced by the prosecution is not of such a nature on which the accused can be convicted.”
In order to connect the accused with the crime in question, prosecution is heavily relied upon the CFSL report as per which, the accused is the biological father of the product of conception of prosecutrix. During the trial in the court, the victim retracted from her original statement.
A plain reading of the DNA report shows that the opinion is conclusive and it does not say with the certainty of conclusiveness that the accused is the biological father of a female product of conception of prosecutrix.
The court acquitted the accused under sections 376(2)(n) (multiple rapes) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
