Court acquits man accused of raping cousin's pregnant wife

A fast track court has acquitted a man of the charges of raping and threatening his pregnant sister-in-law on Holi two years ago, saying there was a chance of "false implication" of the accused.
Additional Sessions Judge T R Naval freed Delhi-resident Vinod Kumar of the charges of raping his cousin's wife and threatening to kill her if she disclosed the incident to anyone.
The judge said the woman's testimony was "not consistent, reliable and trustworthy".
"Rather some of the points which were admitted by the woman created doubt about the truthfulness of her testimony. Besides this, circumstances have been established on record for compelling this court to opined that there may be chance of false implication of the accused," the judge said.

"The woman's husband had admitted that she had levelled false allegations of molestation and harassment for dowry against his father. In these circumstances there may be chance of false implications of the accused in the present case," the court said.
The judge also agreed with the contention of advocates N K Bhadauria and Manish Bhadauria, who had appeared for Kumar, that there was a delay in reporting the matter to the police and the woman's husband had not supported her statement.

The counsel had argued that there was a dispute between Kumar and the couple regarding a loan of Rs 20,000 which was given by the accused to his cousin.

According to the prosecution, the incident took place on Holi (March 20, 2011) when the pregnant woman was resting in her room and her husband had gone on the roof with Kumar to consume liquor.
While her husband was under the influence of liquor, the accused came to her room and raped her, police said, adding that she had raised an alarm but nobody heard her due to Holi celebrations in the street.