Court acquits man in rape case as woman turns hostile

A Delhi court has acquitted a man accused of repeatedly raping a woman after she turned hostile and said a false case was lodged out of anger by her.
The special fast track court let off Delhi-resident Sachin Kumar Dagar, saying the complainant had admitted that she filed the case at the instance of others as well as out of anger.
"No inference can be drawn that accused is guilty of the charged offence under section 376 (rape) read with section 420 (cheating and dishonesty) and under section 506 (criminal intimidation))of IPC.
"The woman has not deposed an iota of evidence of her being raped at all. She has not even mentioned the word 'rape' in her evidence nor has deposed anything incriminating against Sachin Kumar Dagar," Additional Sessions Judge Nivedita Anil Sharma said.

According to the prosecution, the woman met the accused in December, 2012, when she had gone to Bhopal to appear in an examination.
Gradually, they developed friendship and later had physical relations during December 2012 to November 2013, it said, adding that Sachin had promised that he would marry her.

The woman had consensual sexual relations as she believed in the promise, it said, adding that later, an FIR was lodged at the instance her "well wishers" which led to the arrest of accused.
She was declared hostile during her cross-examination as she did not support he own allegations.
"It is clear that the evidence of the prosecution is neither reliable nor believable and is not trustworthy and the prosecution has failed to establish rape and threat. The evidence of the woman makes it highly improbable that such an incident ever took place," the court said.

The court did not record the statement of the accused as nothing incriminating came against during the trial.