Date:28/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/28/stories/2007122856710400.htm

New Delhi

Court acquits rape accused

New Delhi: Contradictory statements by a minor rape victim has prompted a court here to acquit a 29-year-old man accused of raping and kidnapping her for a forced marriage, saying her “credibility was doubtful”

Additional Sessions Judge Deepa Sharma acquitted Kamal Bahadur, a resident of in West Delhi, and said “it would be unsafe to convict a person on the testimony of the victim (also the witness in the case), who was changing her version and thus her credibility was doubtful and she was not a reliable witness.

“Neither there is any corroborative evidence on record nor any other witness to substantiate the version of the victim, although the prosecution had produced thirteen witnesses to prove its case against the accused, Bahadur. An iota of doubt created is sufficient to give benefit of doubt to him,” it said in a recent order. Kamal was charged under sections 376 (rape), 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (kidnapping a woman to compel her marriage) and of the Indian Penal Code.