After 6 yrs, 6 acquitted of rape

Six persons accused of kidnapping and raping a 30-year-old woman were acquitted and released recently after a six-and-a-half-year-long trial. Sources said lapses in the investigation proved helpful to those acquitted — Gangadhara, Siddalinga, Hemesh, Kumara, Balakrishna Kumara and Alwil. They are taxi drivers based in the city.

The 11th Fast Track Court acquitted them owing to the lapses in the investigation and also because of different versions provided by the victim during the police investigation and later in court. The court said it found major contradictions in the case and acquitted the accused of the kidnap and rape charges. Source said the medical report, too, did not help prove rape charges as it said that only a bite mark was found near the victim’s ear. The defence advocate contended none of those acquitted had marks on their bodies. He argued that marks would have been found had the victim resisted rape.

Public prosecutor Narayana Reddy said the six men were acquitted because of lapses in the investigation and contradictory statements by the victim during investigation and court trial. On April 24, 2005, a 30-year-old woman, a construction worker and a resident of Veerabhadranagar near Byatarayanapura, was allegedly kidnapped along with her two children while she was waiting for a bus at Hosakerehalli. Four cab drivers forcibly took her and her two sons to Jnanabharathi campus. There, she was reportedly raped in front of her children. Allegedly, the four men also called up two other friends and they too tried to rape her. After the incident, they reportedly dropped her to her residence.

Girinagar police station had registered a case and the police succeeded in arresting two persons first and nabbed the other four later.