Delhi court acquits man of rape, orders perjury proceedings against woman

It takes one's lifetime to build a reputation, but a few lies can destroy it, said a Delhi court while acquitting a man of rape charge and directing initiation of perjury proceedings against the woman for filing a false case.

Additional Sessions Judge Anuj Agrawal was hearing the case against the man, who was accused of raping the complainant in a hotel here on the intervening night of November 23-24, 2019.

"It is evident from record that prosecutrix gave false deposition before this court and concocted a mendacious story of rape/threat," the court said in its verdict dated April 4 and acquitted the accused.

The court noted that the woman had filed six similar rape and molestation cases in past against different persons and according to Delhi Police she was "in habit of giving false complaint of molestation and eve-teasing".

The court said that her statements had "inherent contradictions".

Noting the facts of the case, the judge said, "The said circumstances, if seen cumulatively, unerringly lead to only one inference that victim entrapped accused in a preplanned manner, which further stands fortified in light of testimony of defence witnesses 1 and 2, who categorically deposed that victim had made a demand of Rs seven lakhs for stating in favour of accused so that he can be released on bail. There are no palpable reasons to disbelieve the version of defence witnesses."  The additional sessions judge said the courts acted as "healers to administer panacea of justice to the wounds of the aggrieved" instead of merely adjudicating upon the aspects of guilt or innocence.

"The word 'aggrieved' cannot be confined only to complainants, but there may be cases where even the accused become the real sufferer, standing before the court with folded hands and beseeching justice for themselves," he said.

The judge said that a simple acquittal could not recompense the agony of the accused, who had to undergo the "trauma of trial" for the heinous offence of rape and criminal intimidation based on a false story.

"It takes one's lifetime to build a reputation but only few lies to destroy the same," the judge said, directing initiation of perjury proceedings against the woman.