Rape case: Victim’s absence lets off movie director

A sessions court on Friday acquitted a director who had been  accused of raping a model/actress of his film in 2003. 
Myra (name changed), the alleged victim who was from Delhi, could never be traced by the police after the trial against the accused, Indrasingh Pandher, began. 

Myra, 23, had told the Charkop police in 2003 that she had come to Mumbai in 2001 and got her first break in Pandher’s film, Dukaan. She also stated that during the shoot of the film, she fell in love with Pandher.

On July 9, 2003, when Myra came to the sets at Charkop, she found that there was no one there except Pandher. Pandher offered her a drink.

“When I refused to drink, he took out his gun and put it on my temple,” she had said in the complaint.

Once she got drunk, Pandher allegedly raped her. Pandher, she stated, later apologised and took her to a local doctor. 

Deposing before the court, Myra’s neighbours said that she had arrived home with a bruise on her lips and told them that she fell off the staircase at Pandher’s house. They took Myra to a police station and it got her medical check-up done at Cooper Hospital. 

The medical reports, however, were inconclusive since no semen traces were found on her clothes. Besides, she got her medical check-up done three days after the alleged incident.  

Considering the slim evidence, additional sessions judge MS Malpani-Pawar acquitted Pandher.