Delhi court acquits 2 in gang rape case

Two men, accused of gang raping a woman last year, have been acquitted by a Delhi court as the woman failed to identify them.

Two men, accused of gang raping a woman last year, have been acquitted by a Delhi court as the woman failed to identify them. Moreover, the police too had failed in sending medical samples for their forensic labs in time, due to which the samples decayed before they could be tested.

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"Since the woman has not identified the accused categorically as the persons who had raped her... the benefit of doubt has to be given to the accused persons," Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Sanjeev Aggarwal said. The court acquitted them of gang rape despite suspecting that the duo, Pooth Khurd village residents Ashok Kumar and Sandeep, did rape the woman.

Observing that medical reports would have best proved the duo’s crime, the court rued that nothing came against them in the forensic report though the forensic samples had been taken immediately after the incident.

"Yet it has been reported in the FSL report that all the blood samples were putrefied or there were no reaction," the court said. The judge had earlier expressed concern over the lack of facilities at police stations for preserving medical and biological samples in criminal cases, often leading to their decay before being sent for forensic tests.