Can't be swayed by emotions/media reporting: Court

Disapproving the hue and cry over acquittals in rape cases, a Delhi court has said the judiciary cannot be swayed by emotions or media reporting and it cannot convict a person in a rape case if witnesses turn hostile.
Additional Sessions Judge Nivedita Anil Sharma said the court has to confine itself to the ambit of law and the testimonies of witnesses.
"It would not be out of place to mention here that today there is public outrage and a hue and cry is being raised everywhere that courts are not convicting the rape accused. However, no man, accused of rape, can be convicted if the witnesses do not support the prosecution case or give quality evidence or where the prosecutrix is hostile, as in the present case.

"It should not be ignored that the court has to confine itself to the ambit of law and the contents of the file as well as the testimonies of the witnesses and is not to be swayed by emotions or reporting in the media," the judge said.
The court made the remarks while acquitting a man of the charges of raping, molesting his sister-in-law and threatening to kill her son after the woman turned hostile.