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Synopsis

A Sessions Court in Mumbai recently acquitted four men accused of sexual assault and gang rape after the victim, who was allegedly a sex worker, gave unreliable and untrustworthy statements.

“The victim does not appear to be trustworthy and reliable in light of her statement in the first information, before Metropolitan Magistrate while recording statement under section 164 of Code of Criminal Procedure and thus, there is reasonable doubt about the forcible sexual assault by the accused. The story of physical assault to attract sections 223 (wrongful confinement), 342 (abduction), 266 (threat), 506(ii) (criminal intimidation) 376(d) (gang rape) and 377 (unnatural intercourse) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) are also not  believable along with the allegation of gang rape to attract section 376(d) and unnatural intercourse to attract section 377 of the IPC,” the court observed.

The victim had alleged that in May 2016, she got down from an auto rickshaw and was abducted by two men who raped her and had unnatural intercourse with her. The accused were apprehended by the police the same day, and the victim had lodged a complaint against them.

The advocate for the accused argued that the victim was a sex worker whom they had hired, and the dispute was about overpayment. Further, it was also claimed that the victim was not able to identify any of the accused during the identification parade, and the two girls whom she claimed had helped her were not examined by the prosecution.

The court observed that no medical evidence supported victim's allegations of physical assault, and there were discrepancies regarding the identification parade.

"Apart from the above, there are other several discrepancies regarding the identification parade. The victim could identify only two accused in the test identification parade and it has further come in the evidence that when the accused were brought to the police station, the victim was present there and she had seen the accused, who were caught by the police. Thus, the victim had already seen the accused before the test identification parade and this fact is sufficient to discard the identification of the accused,” the order noted.

Additionally, the victim's statements were not consistent, and there was reasonable doubt about the accused's forcible sexual assault. The court found the victim to be untrustworthy and unreliable in light of her statement in the first information report and before the Metropolitan Magistrate, and thus acquitted the accused.

Case Title: State of Maharashtra vs Mehaboob Babu Malik Khan & Anr