Delhi HC sets aside conviction of Sonu Punjaban in trafficking case

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday set aside the conviction and 24-year jail sentence of Geeta Arora alias Sonu Punjaban in a case of alleged trafficking of a 12-year-old girl and acquitted her of all charges. Justice Chandrasekharan Sudha also granted the relief to co-accused Sandeep Bedwal, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail in the case probed by the Delhi Police.

The court, in its judgement on appeals by the two accused, said the testimony of the victim suffered from “material contradictions, improvements and inconsistencies” and her conduct cast a “serious shadow” on her reliability.

The court held that there were “several gaps in the prosecution story” and in the absence of any independent corroboration, it was unsafe to sustain the conviction of the appellants on the basis of the victim’s testimony.

“In these circumstances, it can only be held that the materials on record are insufficient to find A1 and A2 guilty of the offences charged against them. Therefore, the conclusion can only be that the trial court went wrong in relying on such unsatisfactory evidence to find the guilt of the accused,” the court held. “In the result, the appeals are allowed and the impugned judgment of conviction and order on sentence are set aside. The appellants, namely, A1 is acquitted under Section 235(1) CrPC of the charges under Sections 363, 366, 366A, 370, 372, 376, and 120B. A2 is acquitted under Section 235(1) CrPC of the charges under Sections 366A, 370, 372, 373, 328, 342 and 120B IPC. They are set at liberty and their respective bail bonds shall stand cancelled,” the court concluded.

As per the prosecution, the victim, “who was about 12 years, was kidnapped in 2009. It was alleged that Bedwal had enticed her under the pretext of marriage, raped her and then sold to several persons who forced her into prostitution and sexually exploited her.

During the course of such trafficking, the victim was ultimately sold to Sonu Punjaban, who used her for prostitution before further selling her to other persons, it was claimed.

In the judgement, the court opined that the investigation in the present case suffered from serious deficiencies as the persons allegedly involved in the chain of trafficking were neither properly identified nor apprehended.

It observed that the prosecution did not establish any “definite or consistent timeline” of when the victim was in Sonu Punjaban’s custody.

The prosecution having failed to establish a clear and cogent timeline linking Sonu Punjaban with the alleged acts, the benefit of such doubt must necessarily enure to the appellant, the court stated.

With regard to the inconsistencies in the victim’s testimony, the court said the discrepancy regarding the year of the incident was not a minor inconsistency as it went to the very genesis of the prosecution case.

It also said the allegation of rape against Bedwal also underwent substantial changes from the stage of inquiry/investigation to the trial of the case.

“These improvements are not minor embellishments but introduce entirely new facets to the prosecution story. It is true that when a young girl/woman, after being administered drinks laced with intoxicants, is subjected to repeated sexual assault by different people at different places, then it may not be possible to recall the entire facts in the correct sequence or recollect the exact dates, months or years.

“In the case on hand, PW1 has no such case that she is unable to recall the details because of the traumatic experience,” the court observed.

The court also noted that the victim lodged multiple FIRs during the relevant period alleging similar acts of kidnapping, intoxication and sexual assault against different persons, and even resiled from allegations in one such case.

Sonu Punjaban was represented by senior advocate Vikas Pahwa.

In July 2020, the trial court had sentenced Sonu Punjaban to jail terms of 14 years for offences under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act and 10 years for other offences under the Indian Penal Code, including selling and buying of a minor girl for prostitution and criminal conspiracy. It had directed that the sentences would run separately.