After acquittal from Bombay High Court, 'rapist' Gopal Shetye seeks audience with Maha CM Fadnavis

The story of Gopal alias Gopi Ramdev Shetye reads like a Greek drama – grave injustice meted out to a man upon whom is then heaped tragedy after tragedy.

On June 10, 2015, the Bombay High Court acquitted Shetye, charged with raping a woman at Kurla station in 2009, of all charges after he had served his full term of seven years in jail. The court found the same evidence that a lower court had found compelling enough to establish his guilt, inadequate. 

While Shetye was in Nashik central jail, his father died of poor health and his old mother was forced to go back to their native place. His wife struggling to make the two ends meet, married again. And, her daughters were put in an orphanage, the DNA newspaper reported Thursday.

"Everything has changed for me. I am a rapist for the world. That is my new identity, but I am not ready to live with it," Shetye said to DNA.

Shetye- after being behind bars for seven years - is now on a hunger strike at Azad Maidan, demanding to meet chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to present his case.

The police had arrested him for raping a 28-year-old woman from Aurangabad, who was sleeping on the railway bridge of Ghatkopar station on July 19, 2009.  He became a victim as the woman had told the police she was raped by a man named Gopi. Shetye was arrested, charged and convicted because his name was Gopal. 

Justice Abhay Thipsay, while passing the judgement observed, "In my opinion, this was a case where the identity of the appellant as the culprit had not been satisfactorily established. There was indeed a real and substantial doubt..."

So now, it is to be seen what the government authorities do compensate for his lost years.