70-year-old advocate acquitted of raping client

Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau absolved the advocate of rape charges saying the alleged victim's testimony does not inspire confidence and the evidence placed on record by the prosecution was insufficient to hold him guilty.

The court also said there was an inordinate delay of five years in lodging the FIR against the accused without any valid explanation.

The court also noted that the advocate, who represented the 33-year-old woman in her matrimonial disputes with her first husband, has been engaged in several litigations with her since 2006, but she did not make any allegation of sexual harassment against him till 2010.

Yet in an FIR lodged in 2011, she alleged that between August 2004 and July 2006, the advocate often used to confine her in his office and residence and rape her and threaten her not to disclose the incident to anyone, the court noted.

The court said the allegations made against the accused by the woman are "highly vague" in terms of details of the incident which makes her testimony "unconvincing, unbelievable and unreliable".

Singh had been representing the woman in a case of domestic violence filed by her against her first husband. The relations of the accused and the woman, who later on remarried, turned bitter and they were engaged in several litigations including cheque bounce cases.