Nizamuddin dargah teacher acquitted in rape case

A Sufi teacher, accused of raping a divorced woman on the pretext of resolving her troubles, has been let off by a Delhi court saying the woman had lodged the complaint in a fit of anger.
The court observed that the woman, who had entered her second wedlock with the accused, a 'khwaja' (teacher or a preacher) at the Hazrat Nizamuddin shrine here, had filed the complaint in anger as he had stopped maintaining her financially.
"Testimony of the woman shows that when the accused stopped coming to her, bearing her expenses and told her that he does not consider their marriage as valid, she contacted his son but he refused to intervene in their matter. This enraged her. She then took legal advice and made the complaint," Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain said.

In her complaint, the 39-year-old woman had said she had gone to the shrine in 2012 to pray as she was upset after losing her job. There she met the Khwaja who comforted her and asked her to visit his office daily where he would pray for her and resolve her problems, it alleged.
She started visiting him regularly for several months and he allegedly intoxicated her with water in which an amulet was dipped every day which made her feel dizzy and claimed he raped her. Later he married her by taking advantage of her semi-conscious condition, the complaint alleged.

The woman then lodged a complaint against the man for offences under sections 376 (rape), 328 (intoxication), 420 (cheating) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.

However, she resiled from her complaint during the trial and admitted having lodged the complaint in anger after the accused stopped living with her and taking care of her financial needs.
"Looking into the testimony of the woman and other witnesses who did not say anything incriminating against the accused, I did not find any purpose to examine the remaining prosecution witnesses as their testimony, even if unrebutted, would not become the basis of the conviction of the accused," the judge said.

The statement of the accused under section 313 of the CrPC was dispensed with as no incriminating evidence came against him.