Court acquits youth of charge of stabbing woman teacher

A youth, who was accused of trying to kill a 24-year-old school teacher by stabbing her, has been acquitted by a Delhi court after the woman turned hostile.
The court freed Delhi Cantonment resident Gaurav Rastogi for the offence of attempt to murder saying the police failed to prove the charges and also pulled up the investigating officer (IO) for not conducting the probe properly.
"In view of the circumstances of the case, the prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt against the accused.
"Hence, giving him benefit of doubt, he is acquitted of the charge," District Judge Ravinder Kaur said, adding that there were "material discrepancies and contradictions" in the testimonies of witnesses.

According to the prosecution, Gaurav had stabbed victim Swati Nehra four-five times with a knife as he was infuriated over her initial denial to accompany him for his birthday party.
Later on, when Swati along with her friend went to attend Gaurav's party in Chanakya Place here on December 11, 2012, he critically injured her with the knife.

An FIR was registered at Dabri Police Station and the accused was arrested on December 14, 2012. The knife which was used for the alleged offence was also recovered.
During the trial, Gaurav pleaded not guilty.
In her deposition in court, Swati retracted from her earlier statements given to the police and was declared hostile.

In her cross-examination, the victim denied that she had given Gaurav's name to police and stated that she was not in a position to explain as to how his name had appeared in her statement.
She deposed in the court that she had told the police in the hospital that she was assaulted by 2-3 men on the day of incident. After the attack, she was taken to the hospital by the principal of her school.
The court felt that the investigating officer (IO) had not conducted the probe properly.
"To verify the said statement of victim given in the hospital that she was assaulted by 2-3 men, it was the duty of the IO to have got the opinion of the treating doctor on the alleged weapon of offence i.E. Knife allegedly recovered at the instance of accused Gaurav," the court said.

"... However, reasons best known to the IO, no opinion was sought by him from the doctor regarding the role of knife with regard to the injuries," the court said.
It said that the arrest of Gaurav was also not proved to have taken place in the manner claimed by the prosecution.