A youth, accused of raping his 15-year-old cousin after kidnapping her last year, has been acquitted by a Delhi court which said the girl was a "consenting party" and it appears that she had done everything with her "sweet will".
Additional Sessions Judge Illa Rawat acquitted the Delhi resident of the charges of kidnapping and raping his cousin saying the police had "miserably failed" to prove the allegations against him.
"...The element of 'taking away' or 'enticement' is found to be lacking. In view of the material on record, it appears that prosecutrix (girl) was willing and consenting party and it seems that everything has happened with her sweet will. In these circumstances, the factum of kidnapping of prosecutrix does not stand proved," the court said.
The court also noted that the minor did not support the police's case and deposed that she had voluntarily accompanied the accused and he had not raped her.
"As far as charges of rape are concerned, the prosecution has miserably failed to prove that the accused had forcibly committed rape upon the prosecutrix without her consent," it said.
According to police, the accused had kidnapped the girl on July 23 last year and had took her to Gurgaon where he kept her till October 14 last year and raped her.
During the trial, the girl had deposed that accused was her cousin and on July 23 last year, she had gone with him for an outing to Manesar and while returning home, it was too late and out of fear of her father, she stayed with her cousin and nothing had happened with her.
The girl denied that she had stated to police that the accused had raped her while she was staying with him.
Her father told the court that he had lodged a complaint to police as his daughter had not returned home from her school on July 23 last year.
He said after his daughter was brought home by police, he asked her about it and she told him that she was residing with the accused and he had not done anything wrong with her.
The court did not record the statement of the accused due to lack of incriminating evidence against him.
