A special POCSO court today
acquitted 18 people accused of immoral trafficking and gangrape of a minor girl after giving them the benefit of doubt.
Special POCSO judge R K Chudawala pronounced the judgement after the 13-year-old victim turned hostile as she told the court that she had not been raped.
The police had arrested 19 people in connection with the case, but one of the accused died during trial.
Eight of the accused, some of them students of a private university at Dholka in Ahmedabad, had been arrested under provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Others, including the parents and relatives of the victim, were held under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act after the girl accused her parents of pushing her into the flesh trade.
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The victim was rescued by police from a guest house in Dholka in November 2016 after her parents registered a case of kidnapping as they were unable to get in touch with her.
The girl had told the police that she was pushed by her parents into the flesh trade and was taken by a pimp to Dholka where eight persons raped her at a guest house.
The victim's family belongs to Rajasthan and had recently shifted to Ahmedabad.
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