Builder acquitted of rape charges

A builder accused of raping his employee has been acquitted by a Delhi court after the alleged victim failed to turn up and depose against him.
Additional sessions judge Virender Bhat allowed the accused, who was in custody since February 6, to walk free after observing that the woman who was the star witness in the case was not "available before this court for her testimony".
"The prosecutrix (woman) was the star witness for the prosecution. However, she could not be produced by the IO (investigating officer) before this court for her testimony despite sufficient opportunities," the judge noted.
The court said that the IO made a statement that her efforts to trace the whereabouts of the woman went in vain.

The IO submitted that she did not find the woman in her Delhi address as well as her native house in West Bengal and was told by her husband that she eloped with someone after return from Delhi, the judge said.
The man, who had employed the victim as a labourer at one of his construction sites here, was arrested by police on her complaint alleging that she was raped by the accused at a under-construction building here in December 2013.
The woman had told the police that since the accused had helped her in getting a rented accommodation here, he used to visit her on a regular basis.

"The accused came to her room on December 14, 2013 and committed forcible sexual intercourse and thereafter also he continued doing the same act with her. He used to molest her at the site of the under-construction building," the woman had said in her complaint.