3 accused acquitted in rape, kidnapping case - Early Times Newspaper Jammu Kashmir

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3 accused acquitted in rape, kidnapping case

3/4/2023 10:04:25 PM

Early Times Report

Jammu, Mar 4: Additional District & Sessions Judge Poonch Parvaiz Iqbal today acquitted three persons who were facing rape and kidnapping charges of a minor girl from Gunthal Surankote.
The court in it's judgement spanning over 95 pages held as under :
"The assumption under S.114A evidence Act has also been successfully rebutted by the defence. It has also been proved that prosecutrix and the accused had consensual sexual intimacy which resulted in pregnancy to her.
The prosecution has failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused committed "Rape‟ by leading unflinching and cogent evidence. Kidnapping has also not been proved and there are sufficient reasons for the court to believe that the prosecutrix had voluntarily eloped with the accused and she was intelligent and mature enough to know and understand the fall out and repercussions of her action.
The allegation of gang rape leveled by the prosecutrix which has not been supported even by the prosecution is found not based on truth and possibly a reaction to the allegation of voluntarily causing death of new born against the family of prosecutrix as well as a ploy to swindle Rs. 3 lacs received by family of prosecutrix from the accused in a panchayat/ meeting of elders.
Her allegation that the statement under S.164-A CrPC was not recorded and only her signatures were taken on a plain paper is found to be an ‘ipse dixit’ and an afterthought to rescind the effect of her statement which she had given in favour of the accused."
The court recordings it's strong criticism about the quality of investigation further observed: "Fair trial and fair investigation are the constitutional guarantees to every citizen under Article 20 and 21. Therefore the minimum requirement of rule of law is that the investigation must be fair, transparent and judicious.
In the present case, I am constrained to say that the investigation has been conducted in a perfunctory and cavalier manner.
The investigating officer has not done his duty professionally and left grey areas which ultimately have proved fatal for the case of prosecution.
The level of callousness can well be gathered from the fact that none of the Investigating officers has appeared before the court as prosecution witness which as a result proved as the last nail in the coffin for the prosecution case because all the shortfall and lacunas in investigation remained unexplained and resultantly gave the benefit of doubt to the accused persons."
Finally the court concluded the judgement and held as "From the above in extension discussion, I am of a considered opinion that the prosecution has failed miserably to bring home the guilt of the accused persons by leading irrefragable evidence and therefore the net result of the discussion in the foregoing paras is that the accused persons are hereby acquitted for all the offences for which they are arraigned in this case." JNF

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