The government has made many laws to protect women but they can just as well be used as tools against men for vengeance as in this particular case. In a recent judgement, a bench of the Gujarat high court rubbished the rape allegations levelled by a girl against two men.
Two people who had been sentenced to seven years imprisonment for allegedly raping a minor girl in Surat have finally got justice as the truth emerged during hearing of their appeals before a bench of the Gujarat high court.
Justice MD Shah has acquitted Natvar Rathod and Jagdish Rathod after the court found that the girl lodged a complaint against the duo as they refused to give Rs2000 to her mother. The court also found contradictions in the age of the girl.
Natvar and Jagdish were sentenced by the fast track court of Surat on January 12, 2006. According to the police complaint, the duo had raped the 14-year-old girl on the night of July 25 and 26, 2005. The next day the girl lodged a complaint with the police which led to the arrest of both the accused. After hearing the prosecution, the trial court sentenced the duo to seven years rigorous imprisonment.
The accused then filed an appeal through their counsels Rekha Kapadia and PK Shukla before the high court. The counsels submitted that, "The girl has deposed that five months before the complaint she accompanied the accused of her own accord. She has also deposed that there was no force and no injury caused to her."
They further argued that "the victim has admitted in her evidence that as the accused refused to give Rs2,000, her mother she threatened to lodge the complaint. According to the medical examination of the doctors the age of the victims is also not proved beyond doubt."
After the hearing, justice Shah concluded that, "taking into consideration the evidence of the victim including her own admission that she filed the complaint as the accused did not give Rs2,000 and other aspects of the case, prosecution cannot be said to have established the guilt against the accused beyond reasonable doubt.
The judge further said, "It is true that the version of the victim can be relied on without any corroboration. However, if the version of the victim itself does not appear to be trustworthy and reliable, conviction cannot be based on the said evidence. Apart from the above, it appears that the complaint has been filed after a long lapse of time. It thus appears that the court below has not properly appreciated the evidence on record.
About the age of the girl the judge said, "The girl might be more than 16 years or below 16 years but it is not proved beyond reasonable doubt by the prosecution that she was below 16 years.”
“As per the evidence of the victim, she has no knowledge of either her birth date or the birth date of her family member. However, as per the information, there was two years difference between each child. As far as evidence of the victim's mother is concerned, she is not aware of the exact birth date of the victim but according to her, there is two years gap between each child," he said.
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