Court acquits two brothers in gangrape case

Two brothers, who were accused of gangraping a 15-year-old girl last year, have been acquitted by a Delhi court after the alleged victim and her parents did not support the allegations levelled against them.
Additional Sessions Judge Illa Rawat freed Delhi residents Sonu and Sudhir of the charges of gangraping and threatening the girl here in June last year, saying no material witnesses, including the minor and her parents, had testified in support of the prosecution's case.
"....From the testimony of prosecutrix (girl) as well as other material placed on record, the prosecution has failed to prove that accused Sonu and Sudhir had committed rape upon the prosecutrix, a minor girl, aged about 15 years, and has further failed to prove that they both criminally intimidated her by threatening to kill her parents, if she disclosed, about this fact to anyone," the court said.

According to the police, on June 19, last year, Sonu and Sudhir had raped the minor girl in a field near her house here and had threatened her that they would kill her parents if she disclosed about it to anyone.
It had said that on the basis of the girl's statement, a case was registered against both the accused.
During the trial, the minor girl "completely denied" the prosecution's case and her parents also did not support the police version regarding the lodging of any such complaint.

The police had told the court that the girl was gangraped by the brothers on June 19, last year and on June 23, both the accused again came to her house when her mother was not there and they tried to rape her.

The accused fled the spot as the girl's mother returned home and saw them, it had said, adding that on June 23, the minor along with her mother had come to the police station and had lodged a complaint against them.
During the trial, Sonu and Sudhir told the court that they were innocent and were being falsely implicated in the case.
The court acquitted them, saying there were considerable doubts in the girl's testimony as there were contradictions in her complaint and statement which make her "totally unreliable and untrustworthy witness".