Court acquits man of charges of raping stepdaughter

A man facing trial for allegedly raping his step daughter for over six years has been acquitted by a Delhi court which said the "unnatural conduct" of the girl and her "unreliable" testimony has nullified the prosecution's case.
Additional Sessions Judge T R Naval acquitted the man, a resident of Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, observing that the girl had not told her mother or her sister about being allegedly raped by her stepfather for the last six years.
"The fact of commission of rape was neither told to her (girl's) mother nor to her sister. Thus, there is unnatural conduct of the prosecutrix. This has further created doubt about the reliability of the testimony of prosecution case," the court said, adding that the girl had told about her alleged rape to a "stranger" who was husband of her younger sister.

The court also said there was an "unreasonable delay" in registration of FIR in the case as the girl had said that her stepfather had been raping her since she was 14-year-old while the matter was reported after a gap of six years which creates doubt about the "genuineness" of the case.
According to police, on February 17, 2011, the 20-year- old girl had lodged a complaint that her stepfather had been raping her for the last six years and the accused was arrested on February 18, 2011.
The girl in her complaint had said after the accused had married her mother, they all moved to Aligarh where the stepfather established physical relations with her and consequently a female child was born, but the baby had died. The family moved to Delhi about four years ago.

The girl had also alleged that her stepfather used to give sleeping pills to her mother so that he could sexually assault her and when she had objected, he had threatened to kill her brother and sister.