A Delhi court has acquitted the father and the brother of a girl of the charges of repeatedly raping her, saying it was "improbable" that she could have been raped in the presence of several family members.
The court also based its acquittal order on a "big delay" in the registration of the FIR by the girl.
The girl, who was around 17 at the time of the alleged incident in 2015, had claimed she had been repeatedly raped by her father and brother for months, while living with them under a single-room house.
Additional Sessions Judge Umed Singh Grewal said the girl, who had alleged that she was threatened not to disclose the incident to anyone, had every opportunity to tell about it to customers coming to her family-run grocery store where she used to sit sometimes.
"About 8-10 persons of the family members of the victim and accused used to sleep together without any partition. None of them was joined in the investigation by the police. It is improbable that father and son would rape the victim in the presence of so many persons of their family," the court said, acquitting the father-son duo.
The court also termed the alleged victim's evidence as "suffering from infirmities" owing to the girl giving different dates and months of the incident during her deposition.
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"The prosecutrix (girl) gave different times and months of the incident. There is a big delay in the registration of the FIR. Her evidence is improbable and is suffering from infirmities for which corroboration is required which is not coming from anywhere," the court said.
It said the girl admitted in her cross-examination that her family members used to run a grocery shop and she also used to sit in that shop to sell groceries.
"So, she is not correct in deposing that she was not allowed to go anywhere and due to that, she could not tell about the incident to anybody. She had every opportunity to tell customers about the incident. It is pertinent to mention that customers in such small shops are always neighbours," it said.
The court said the victim and her cousin with whose help the FIR was lodged, cannot be believed on the point that they spoke to her uncle about the incident, saying had she complained to her family members, they would have come in open support of the victim and her cousin.
"Had they complained to other family members, whose number was not less than 10, they might also have come to know of the incident and they would have come in the open support of them. But none of them is supporting them. Rather, none of them was examined by police in investigation and the only reason may be that they were not supporting the victim on that issue," the court said.