A woman, who along with her son was accused of forcing her minor niece into prostitution and living on earnings from flesh trade, has been acquitted by a court here as the Delhi Police failed to produce the victim before it.
Additional Sessions Judge Sanjeev Kumar also acquitted the woman, who was the maternal aunt of the girl, and her son of the charges of abetting the rape of her niece and abated the proceedings against the victim's father, an accused in the case, as he died during the pendency of the trial.
"The prosecution despite being given a number of opportunities has failed to produce the girl, who was the only eyewitness of her rape, illegal confinement and forced prostitution.
"In the absence of her testimony, it would not be safe to convict the accused," the court said, adding that in the absence of the girl, the statements of other witnesses become "useless".
According to the prosecution, the woman and her son had pushed the 15-year-old girl into prostitution and they were living on the earning from the flesh trade.
Police said when the girl escaped from the clutches of the accused in June 2010 and went to the house of a neighbour, they tried to forcibly take her away and also beat her up.
Police had got information in June 2010 that a girl has been kidnapped and she was found present in a house in Rohini here. During investigation, the girl told the police that her maternal aunt and her son had brought her to Delhi after giving some money to her father for his treatment.
The mother-son duo, however, forced her into prostitution and when she objected, all of them including her father used to threaten her, the girl had said.
Later on, when the girl found an opportunity, she ran away and took shelter in a neighbour's house from where the police had rescued her.
The police, however, failed to produce the girl before the court for her deposition during the trial.
While acquitting the accused, the judge said, "I held that prosecution has miserably failed to prove that accused persons had forced the girl to enter into prostitution and earned their livelihood from the income earned from the prostitution.
"I acquit both the accused persons under provisions of the IPC and the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act.
