SC acquits man accused of raping 15-yr-old cousin

The Supreme Court has acquitted a man, serving 10 year jail term for allegedly raping his 15-year-old cousin in 2001 at Faridabad, holding that the offence has not been established.

A bench of Justices N V Ramana and Mohan M Shantanagoudar set aside the verdict of the Punjab and Haryana High Court upholding the trial court's 2011 judgement convicting Sham Singh and his brother Jai Singh.

While Sham Singh, who has been in prison for seven years, moved the apex court, his brother and co-convict Jai Singh did not file the plea as he has already served the ten-year jail term in the case.

The apex court took note of the fact that the testimonies of two defence witnesses, who had held the 'panchayat' in the matter, did not refer to the offence of rape and moreover, their statements were not rebutted in the trial.

It said there was "every possibility of false implication of the accused in this matter to take revenge against the family of the accused because of long-standing disputes, as alleged, between the two families".

The High Court, while upholding the conviction of two brothers in the case, however, had acquitted their mother due to want of evidence against her.

In its order, the apex court noted that the wife, children, sister and mother of the accused persons were present in the house when the alleged incident took place and said that in such a scenario, the incident was highly unlikely.

"The fact that at the residential house of the appellant (accused), wherein all the inmates of the house including the mother, children, sister and wife of the accused were living, such a brutal offence of rape could not have been executed without attracting the attention of anyone at that point of time, would make the prosecution version seriously improbable.

"We are of the view that the doubtful and suspicious nature of the evidence sought to be relied upon to substantiate the circumstances in this case, themselves suffer from serious infirmities and lack of legal credibility to merit acceptance in the hands of the court of law," it said, adding it was a case where incriminating materials were lacking against the accused.

According to the FIR, the accused had in August 2001 forcibly took the victim into their house, tied her hands on a cot with rope and committed rape on her.

Both the accused had denied the allegations and claimed it to be false because of the family enmity that existed between the victim's family and the family of the accused.