Four of a family were acquitted of rape charges by a city court which termed the case as a classic illustration of how rape laws are missed used. In the present case, the court observed, the husband of the alleged victim used her as a “pawn” to settle personal scores.
The court acquitted Delhi residents Sikander, his brother Shailender and their parents Harender Mehto and Sushila of the charges and stressed the need to remain “vigilant” in “differentiating” between false and genuine rape cases so that no innocent person is convicted.
“Before parting with, I would like to put on record that this case is the classic illustration of misuse of rape-related laws. The husband of the prosecutrix, in order to settle scores with the accused, used her as an arrow or pawn and slapped an utterly false criminal case upon the accused,” Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Virender Bhat said.
“It is becoming a very difficult job nowadays for the courts to differentiate between genuine rape cases from the false ones. The cases like the present one create a well-founded belief among the public as well as the judiciary that rape related laws are misused with impunity,” the judge said.
Sikander and his family members were facing trial in the case on the allegations levelled against them by a woman, one of their relatives, who had claimed that she was confined and gang-raped by the two brothers before being attempted to be sold.
The woman had approached a magisterial court seeking that her relatives, Sikander and the three others, had abducted her in August 2011 after which she was allegedly beaten up and raped. The court ordered that persons named be booked and charges under various Sections of the IPC including that of gang-rape and wrongful confinement were ordered by the magisterial court.
During the trial, the complainant and her father did not support the prosecution’s case, prompting the judge to stop the trial after recording the
statements of four prosecution witnesses. The woman then laid bare the entire matter which stemmed from her leaving her matrimonial home and moving with the accused since her in-laws were “torturing” her. The woman’s side tried to mend the scenario, but her in-laws decided to teach the family a lesson and told her to play along in a false rape saga. Subsequently, she agreed to accuse her relatives, who gave her refuge when she ran from her matrimonial home, of rape, abduction and assault.