A man accused of raping a widow on the pretext of marriage since her husband's death in 1994, was acquitted by a Delhi court as the woman, a Delhi police head constable, turned "hostile" and denied being "raped" by him.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Yogesh Khanna let off the accused, a father of two, on the charges of raping and cheating the woman.
"Considering the fact that the prosecutrix (woman) herself had denied of being raped by the accused (man) and had herself deposed that she made the statements...Out of anger and frustration as she needed a settlement of the property dispute she had with her in-laws.
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"She thought that the accused, a mediator, was in collusion with her in-laws, so she had filed the complaint against him. (This) does show that the woman falsely claimed of being raped by the accused," the court said.
"Even the brother of the woman had turned hostile and he too was cross-examined by the public prosecutor for the state, but nothing incriminating came on record against the accused," ASJ Khanna observed.
He said that "In this circumstances, considering the deposition of the prosecutrix where she had completely turned hostile, the accused deserves to be acquitted of the charges."
The man was picked by the police in May on the woman's complaint with the Hauz Khas police station here that after her husbands death in 1993, her neighbour developed physical relation with her on promise of marriage.
"In the year 1994, my neighbour at Kotla Mubarakpur in south Delhi started getting close to me and then without my consent, he made physical relations with me.
"He used to promise marriage to me and I did not disclose this fact to anyone due to shame...He also used to threaten me if I disclose these facts to anyone that he would get me and my daughter killed," the woman had told the police.
