A man, accused of throwing acid on a married woman while expressing his love for her, has been acquitted by a Delhi court which observed that she had caused "irreparable damage to the case" of prosecution by turning hostile.
Additional Sessions Judge Manoj Jain absolved Delhi resident Manjeet of the offence under section 326A (causing hurt by throwing acid) of the IPC, after the woman failed to identify him in the court.
She claimed before the court that an unknown person had thrown acid on her and she had lodged the complaint under pressure from police.
"The fact remains that hostile and unsupportive testimony of complainant has caused irreparable damage to the case of prosecution. She has backtracked from her alleged original version and has rather wholly exonerated the accused.
"Prosecution has, thus, miserably failed to show that acid had been thrown by accused Manjeet. I am, therefore, inclined to grant benefit of doubt to him," the judge said.
The court also noted that there was no other eyewitness in the case and it was squarely dependent on the woman's deposition, but "to the utter dismay of prosecution, she has not supported the case".
According to prosecution, the woman had lodged a complaint on January 9 alleging that while she was going home from work, Manjeet suddenly appeared and threw acid-like substance on her while expressing his love for her.
However, she resiled from her statement in the court saying that she could not see the offender.
