A 16-year-old Kolar girl's deposition before a magistrate that she was in love with a youth, who was charged with abducting and raping her, and that they neither had sexual intercourse nor did he force her, has come to the accused's rescue.
Citing the girl's statement and absence of medical examination to prove rape, the high court overturned the December 10, 2018 verdict of a Kolar court convicting Kumar (name changed) of abduction and rape. Kumar, 29, had been sentenced for seven years each for abduction and rape and 10 years under POCSO Act.
Allowing his appeal, Justice Mohammed Nawaz held that the prosecution failed to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, especially the basic charge of abduction. The judge noted that in the first place, the prosecution hadn't established that the girl had been kidnapped from her parents' residence and kept in a house belonging to Kumar's friend.
The judge said under section 164 of the criminal procedure code, the girl only stated before a magistrate that she was in love with Kumar and that he neither troubled her nor had intercourse during the 20 days they stayed together at his friend's house.
The prosecution contended that Kumar kidnapped the girl on December 2, 2016, and took her to Srinivaspura and thereafter to Madanapalle in Andhra Pradesh. She was confined to his friend's house in Tambalapalli, Andhra Pradesh.
The case was registered based on a complaint filed by the girl's parents.
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