A man, who was accused of sexually assaulting and sodomising two minor boys, has been acquitted by a Delhi court after the children and their mothers failed to support the prosecution's case.
Additional Sessions Judge, Illa Rawat acquitted the man, a resident of north-west Delhi, of the offences under section 377 (unnatural sex) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 5[m] (sexual assault of child) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
While acquitting him, the judge relied on testimonies of the two minors and their mothers who denied making any complaint against him with the police for sexually assaulting the kids. The two kids were neighbours.
"Since, neither the victim children nor their mothers have supported the case, the prosecution has no legs to stand its case on," the judge said. The court also noted that not a single public witness was examined during the probe, "hence investigation by the police does not stand explained by the prosecution in this case."
According to the prosecution, on the evening of May 6, 2013, the man took the two children, 7 and 8-year-old, to his residence on the pretext of giving them candies. When both the kids did not return home for a long time, their mothers began searching for them and heard their loud cries coming from a house in the neighbourhood, it said. On forcing the door open with the help of other people, the boys were found inside the house standing naked with the man and a pornographic video was being played on a TV in the same room, it added.
The police said that the man was arrested two days after incident when testimonies of the children and their mothers were recorded. The minors and their mothers, however, denied before the court that the two boys were sexually assaulted, saying that the children were crying in the man's room as he had slapped them because while playing, their football came inside his house.
Mother of one of the children told the court that the police had taken her signatures on a blank paper and had wrongly recorded her statement.
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