A 50-year-old man accused of raping a widow has been acquitted by a Delhi court on the ground that the woman turned "hostile" and said she was not raped.
Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna let off Delhi resident at the stage of recording of statement of the alleged victim in which she has not deposed of "rape against her will or consent" by the accused.
"Considering the deposition of the prosecutrix (woman) where she has completely turned hostile, the accused deserves to be acquitted of the charges under section 376 (rape)/ 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC as framed against him and hence he is acquitted," the judge said.
The accused was arrested in May, 2013 on the complaint of a woman who had alleged she was raped by him while she had accompanied him to see the doctor.
The woman had told the police that when she used to visit Safdarjung Hospital in south Delhi for her treatment as an outdoor patient, the accused used to assist her in obtaining medicines from the concerned department.
She further said one day the accused told her about a good doctor in the market and asked her to accompany him for her treatment.
"He brought the victim to the market outside the hospital and took her to a room of a hotel and raped her," the police had charged.
"The statement of the daughter of the prosecutrix is all hearsay as she had narrated the facts as told to her by her mother. She is not a witness to the incident," the court said.
"There was a hot exchange of words between the victim and the accused on some petty issue and that due to her mental depression, she lodged a complaint in the police station," the judge noted.
