Court frees youth in sexual harassment case,says probe tainted

A young man, accused of stalking, sexually harassing and threatening a 13-year-old girl on her way to school, has been acquitted by a Delhi court which said statements of prosecution witnesses were contradictory and the probe conducted by police was "tainted and not reliable".
"From testimonies of the witnesses, it is clear that the police has conducted entire investigation in police station only and tried to project that the rukka (report) was written at the place of incident and was sent to duty officer..." Additional Sessions Judge Arvind Kumar said.
The judge noted that the arrest memo shows place of arrest as police station while investigating officer said the 20-year-old accused was arrested from his house.

"It is also clear on the testimony of the witnesses that police prepared all the documents at the police station. The probe conducted by police is tainted and not reliable... I am of the view that no reliance can be placed on prosecution case," the judge said.
The court also observed that the prosecution witnesses, including the alleged victim, her mother and brother did not support the police version of arresting accused from his house.
It said that the testimony of mother and brother of the alleged victim did not mention the date, time or place of the incident when the accused allegedly stalked her and held her hand.

"Prosecution has failed to bring home the guilt of accused beyond the shadow of all reasonable doubts, thus I hereby acquit the accused from all the charges," the judge said while acquitting him of offences of sexual harassment, stalking, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation of IPC and sexual assault under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

According to the prosecution, the youth used to repeatedly stalk and harass the girl on her way to school in May 2013 and one day forcible held her hand.
She informed her mother, who confronted the parents of the accused few days later on May 7, 2013, it said, adding that the same day, the girl's brother was allegedly beaten up by the accused and his family after he asked the youth to stay away from his sister, following which an FIR was registered.

During the trial, the accused had pleaded innocence and claimed he was falsely implicated.