Two men have been acquitted of the charge of gangraping a woman by a Delhi court, which refused to rely on testimony of the alleged victim saying it was "neither credible nor trustworthy".
Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhatt absolved Uttarakhand natives Mukesh and Raju of the charges of 376 D (gang rape) and 328 (causing hurt by means of poison) of IPC, saying the woman made contradictory statements in her FIR and cross examination.
"The prosecutrix does not appear to be a trustworthy witness. She has stated in the FIR that Raju committed rape upon her after she was raped by Mukesh. However, in the cross examination, she has deposed that she became unconscious before the sexual assault and did not know what Raju had done," the judge said.
"...The testimony of the woman is neither credible nor trustworthy. It does not inspire the confidence of the court. Her version does not get corroborated from the other evidence on record," the judge said while acquitting the accused.
The court also noted that the DNA report did not prove the guilt of the accused.
"The DNA report too does not support the case of the prosecution and it becomes manifest that she had not been raped by any of these accused on the date of incident," it said, adding, "the prosecution failed to prove the guilt of the two accused...They are liable to be acquitted".
According to the prosecution, on February 24, 2014, Raju and Mukesh along with two of their friends had taken the woman in an RTV to a secluded area in east Delhi on the pretext of getting her a job, where they got drunk and made her consume a sedative-laced soft drink after which she became unconscious.
It said that she was then raped by Raju and Mukesh and they fled from the spot leaving the woman in the jungle area.
She managed to reach her residence late at night and narrated the incident to her family members, who lodged the complaint, police said.
The accused, who were arrested from their residence, had denied the allegations and claimed that they were falsely implicated.
