Court frees man, says extortion case cooked up to frame him

A Delhi court has acquitted a man of the charges of criminal intimidation and extortion saying the case appears to have been cooked up only to put pressure on him.
"It appears that the story has been cooked up only to put pressure upon the accused. The allegation of threat and demand of money is vague in nature," Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ankur Jain observed while letting off the man, a Rajasthan native, in the case filed by a woman.
The judge pointed out that it was the woman's father, a resident of Dwarka in south-west Delhi, who made her file the complaint so as to pressurise the accused to divorce his daughter, whom he had allegedly forcefully married.

"It appears in order to put pressure upon the accused, the present complaint was filed so that he agrees to divorce the daughter of prosecution witness 2 (girl's father)," the judge said.
According to the prosecution, on February 26, 2007, the accused had obtained the woman's signatures on blank papers on the pretext of getting her a job.
Later, the accused took her to some unknown place to meet his friends, who allegedly took her pictures with him, it said, adding that the man then forcefully married her and threatened to leak the photos in her locality to defame her.

The accused also allegedly demanded Rs 5 lakh from her father and warned that if the demand was not met, she would be killed. He denied all allegations and claimed trial.
The court observed that the photographs do not show that the girl was under any kind of pressure or coercion and noted that there was a delay of four months in filing the complaint.
"There is no complaint on record which could show that immediately the complaint was made by the complainant, when the incident occurred with them," the court said.