Shiney Ahuja gets seven years jail in rape case

Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja was today sentenced to seven years' rigorous imprisonment by a fast track sessions court here for raping his maid despite the victim turning hostile during the trial.

While convicting the accused, judge PM Chouhan relied mainly upon the FIR in the case, Ahuja's lawyer Srikant Shivade told reporters who were not allowed in the court as the trial was held in-camera.

The court has also not accepted the maid's evidence in the court that she was not raped as the judge felt that she had given false evidence.

Clad in pink shirt and jeans, 38-year-old Ahuja was accompanied by his wife Anupam in the court when the judgement was delivered.

According to a policeman, there were tears in his eyes when the judge pronounced the order.

In September last year, the maid had backtracked from her allegations that Ahuja had raped her at his residence in Mumbai and said the incident had never occurred.

The 20-year-old girl told the court that she had filed the complaint against the actor at the behest of the woman who had secured her the job of a maid in Ahuja's residence.

Earlier, in June 2009, the girl had lodged a police complaint alleging that she was raped by the actor at his residence. Ahuja was arrested on June 14 and released on bail three months later.

On September 3 last year, the victim had identified Ahuja in the court and said she used to work at his residence as a domestic help. But when asked about the incident, she said she was never raped.

Following this, the court had declared her hostile.

The police, in a 109-page charge sheet, had charged Ahuja with rape and wrongfully confining the victim.

Ahuja, in his defence, had argued that he was falsely implicated.

Meanwhile, additional commissioner of police, Amitabh Gupta, who supervised the probe into the rape case, said the convincing evidence police collected had proved the role of the actor in the crime despite the victim turning hostile.

"We are happy that the accused in the case was convicted," he said.

They had convincing evidence including forensic evidence, the IPS officer said adding, "We had left no loopholes in the probe. Despite the victim turning hostile we managed to prove our case in the court."

Police had gathered the DNA report and the medical report, which confirmed the rape by Ahuja. The investigating officials also recorded the statements of 12 witnesses and gathered other documentary evidence, said another police officer.

The victim in her complaint to police had said that she and the actor were alone in the house when Ahuja raped her.

The maid had alleged that Ahuja had confined her to his bedroom for hours before allowing her to go.

Once she was allowed to go, she told her aunt about the incident who then took her to the Oshiwara police station to lodge the complaint, the girl said.