Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna let off the four Delhi residents, all in their 30s, observing that the alleged victim had also turned hostile and failed to identify another accused who had faced trial in the case earlier and was acquitted.
The court said the accused "have been suffering trial from the day the charge sheet was filed" and it saw "no reason" for the case to be allowed to further linger on.
"Various efforts of the prosecution to produce the girl and other material witnesses have failed and hence considering that earlier also the witnesses had turned hostile against the accused (fifth person) in the trial already held, I see no reason for the case to be allowed to further linger on, when the victim and the witnesses themselves are also not serious or following the case and had even not bothered/cared to find out its details...," the court said.
However, the girl and her friends left for their home in their car, but the five assailants followed them. They later blocked their route and thrashed the girl's friend and kidnapped her, the police had said.
The men took the girl in their car, gangraped her and later dumped her on the roadside, it added.