Observing that it was not convinced with the police's case against six students accused of gang-raping a US national, the Bombay high court today gave the prosecution a last chance to submit before it evidence against the accused.
"It is a serious offence. There has to be some evidence to show sexual intercourse by force. But in this case neither the girl is saying directly that she was raped nor is there any evidence to prove so. We are not convinced," a division bench of Justices NH Patil and Mridula Bhatkar said.
The court was hearing an appeal filed by the Maharashtra government challenging the acquittal of the six students.
The case dates back to April 12, 2009 when six friends - Vinamra Soni, Harshvardharn Yadav, Jaskaran Singh Bullar, Anish Borkatki, Dev Colabawala and Kundanraj Bodgohai -allegedly took the 23-year-old victim, a student of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), to Kundan's suburban house and gang-raped her.
"Before admitting the appeal we would like the prosecution to submit some evidence to prove the offence of gang-rape," the court observed posting the matter for further hearing tomorrow.
"We understand the plight of the victim, who is a foreign national staying alone in the country but there has to be some evidence. All the medical tests are negative. There are no semen stains or marks of violence. The victim is only saying that something must have happened," Justice Bhatkar remarked.
All the six accused were acquitted in October last year by the trial court, which observed that the victim's statement was not credible and the prosecution failed to provide evidence.
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