Stepfather acquitted of charge of raping minor girl

A stepfather, accused of raping an 11-year old girl, has been acquitted by a city court saying the victim kept changing her stand during trial and her statement could not be relied upon.

Additional Sessions Judge Balwant Rai Bansal, while acquitting the man, a Delhi Jal Board (DJB) employee, of the offences of rape and criminal intimidation under the IPC, also noted that there was delay of three months in lodging of FIR in the incident which allegedly took place in August 2011.

"The victim has been taking stands differently at different stages of her statements and her testimony has not been consistent whether the accused committed rape upon her or he only attempted to commit rape upon her," the judge said.

The court said there were inconsistencies in the statements of the alleged victim and her mother regarding the time of the incident, age of the girl's younger sister and whether the accused raped her or it was an attempt.

The court also noted that with regard to allegations of threat, it was unclear from her testimony whether the accused threatened to kill her or defame her.

It referred to the statement of the girl's sister that during the time between the incident and lodging of FIR, the accused stepfather was allowed to enter their house.

"It is hard to believe that under the normal human behaviour, a mother would allow the person, who had raped her daughter, to enter and stay in the house and there would be no quarrel at all."

According to the prosecution, the minor girl was raped by her stepfather on August 30, 2011 in their South Delhi house when her mother was away for work.

However, a complaint was lodged on November 4, 2011 by the girl and her mother alleging that the child was raped by her step-father, adding that such incident had occured twice earlier.

Denying the allegations, the man claimed that he was at work and not in the house at the time of the alleged incident.

This claim was accepted by the court which relied on the attendance register produced before it by a senior officer of the DJB.

-PTI