Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Nivedita Anil Sharma absolved Delhi resident Mahender of rape charges observing that the court is "completely satisfied" that police has failed to bring home the guilt of the accused.
During the trial of the case, the court had issued summons to the girl through the investigating officer (IO) but it was not executed due to her unavailability at her given address.
"Therefore, in view of above discussion, the conscience of this court is completely satisfied that the prosecution has failed to bring home the charge against the accused (Mahender) due to lack of evidence, especially as the prosecutrix (girl), is untraceable," the court said.
According to the police, Mahender was charge-sheeted by the police for allegedly raping the 20-year-old girl between November 2008 and November 2011 at a house in Mohan Garden area.
During the trial, the court recorded the statements of various prosecution witnesses except that of the girl but the statement of the accused was not recorded as there was nothing incriminating on record against him as the girl was untraceable.
"The star witness of the prosecution, the prosecutrix (girl) is untraceable and the summons issued to her through the IO have been returned unexecuted with the report that she is not traceable. The evidence of the other witnesses is insufficient for convicting the accused (Mahender) as they are official witnesses or public witness," the court said.
