Court acquits youth accused of raping minor girl

A youth accused of kidnapping and raping a minor girl had been acquitted by a Delhi court on the ground that everything between them was with the "consent" of the girl and the boy has not "committed any offence".
Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat directed release of the boy, a native of Bihar, from Tihar jail saying the girl had "voluntarily eloped" with the boy as she was in "love with him and wanted to marry him".
"The overall conduct of the prosecutrix (girl) as noted herein above, shows that she had voluntarily eloped with the accused as she was in love with him and wanted to marry him but her family members were against such marriage as accused did not belong to their caste.

"It also shows that the girl was consenting party to the sexual intercourse also between the two," the court said.
The boy was arrested by the police in February 2012 after the girl's father had lodged a complaint alleging that the accused, who was their neighbour, had kidnapped his daughter.
The prosecution had further said that the boy had asked the girl to marry him but on her refusal, he kidnapped her and took her to Nagpur, and there he had solemnised marriage with the girl and had committed rape on her on several occasions.

However, the accused during the trial had denied all the allegation against him and said that he was being implicated.

He had also said that the victim's mother had solemnised her daughters marriage with him on February 12, 2012 at temple here and thereafter they both were living as husband and wife.
He further stated that mother of the girl got him falsely implicated in this case in order to avoid repayment of loan of Rs 10,000 to him.
"...It is evident that she (girl) left her house with a bag containing three suits on a mere telephonic call from the accused (youth) thereby implying that she herself was willing to accompany him and knew that she would be staying with him for a few days.

"Her testimony nowhere demonstrates that the youth had employed any threat, force or pressure upon the prosecutrix to accompany him," the judge noted.