Relying on the testimony of a girl about her age, the Delhi High Court has upheld the order of a trial court and discharged a man booked in a rape case under the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The Court held that the girl was married to the accused and was living with him.
The parents of the girl had filed a First Information Report against the accused, Umesh, and charged him with kidnapping their daughter when she allegedly went missing in 2013. The police later traced the girl and found that she had married him and was living with him.
The Delhi government had filed a revision petition in the High Court against a trial court order that discharged Umesh. The trial court had dropped charges against the accused while noting that there was no prima facie evidence against him.
The trial court had held in its judgment on October 25, 2013, that there was no material on record to show that the accused raped the child victim. The court also noted that whatever sexual relations were developed between the girl and the accused were pursuant to marriage.
As per the statement of an independent witness, Rahila, the girl was found near a temple on July 4, 2013. Since she was hungry, Rahila brought her to her house where she met Umesh and later, they started living together.
Justice Indermeet Kaur of the High Court rejected the revision petition last week, observing that the girl’s statement recorded under sections 161 and 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) had clearly established that she accompanied the accused on her own and married him.
“She had established physical relations with him on her own…Her reason for leaving the home was that her parents beat her,” said the Court in its six-page judgment.
