A Delhi court has acquitted three people in a minor's gangrape and kidnapping case and said there was a possibility the girl's father had falsely implicated the accused in it.
The court said the 14-year-old girl's testimony was not "trustworthy" or "reliable" and wondered why she did not raise an alarm despite having had several opportunities to do so.
"I am of the considered view that the prosecution has not been able to bring home guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt," Additional Sessions Judge Bimla Kumari said.
It freed a Delhi resident, his wife and a person from UP in the case.
"After going through the material on record, I am of the considered view that the possibility of a false implication of the accused persons, in the present case by the father of the prosecutrix, cannot be ruled out," the judge said.
The court noted in the recent verdict that the complainant, who was the father of the minor and the landlord of the accused couple, had met them in jail after an FIR had been lodged.
"The defence taken by the accused couple that the complainant was blackmailing them and wanted to extort money from them and when the money was not paid to him, he gave a false statement in the court, and also made the girl give false evidence in the court, seems to be plausible," it said.
The court also said the testimony of the girl was not corroborated with that of other material witnesses. It was not clear when and from where she was kidnapped on December 7, 2007, and which of the accused had extorted Rs 2.5 lakh from her.
The minor deposed in the court that the accused had given her something to eat after which she followed their instructions and they asked her to bring Rs 2.5 lakh from her house.
They then took her to Khurja in Uttar Pradesh on a motorcycle and later she was taken to Odisha in a car and was raped by the two men, she deposed.
After two months, her parents went there with the police and brought her back to Delhi, she said.
The two men were charged with various offences, including gangrape, kidnapping and extortion. The woman was accused of helping her husband conceal the girl in a room in Odisha and also abetting rape.
During the trial, the three accused claimed they were innocent and were falsely implicated in the case.
The couple claimed the girl's father was blackmailing them and had extorted money from them. He also threatened to implicate them in a false criminal case, they said.
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