New Delhi:
The Delhi Excessive Court docket has acquitted a person in a POCSO case, saying using the phrase “bodily relations” by the minor survivor can’t robotically imply sexual assault.
A bench of Justices Prathiba M Singh and Amit Sharma allowed the attraction by the accused, who was given imprisonment for the remainder of his life, and noticed that it was unclear how the trial court docket concluded that there was any sexual assault when the survivor had voluntarily gone with the accused.
The court docket asserted that the leap from bodily relations or “samband” to sexual assault after which to penetrative sexual assault should be established by proof and can’t be deduced as an inference.
“The mere undeniable fact that the survivor is under 18 years can’t result in a conclusion that there was penetrative sexual assault. The survivor, actually, used the phrase ‘bodily relations’, however there is no such thing as a readability as to what she meant through the use of the stated phrase,” the court docket stated within the judgment handed on December 23.
“Even using the phrases ‘samband banaya’ just isn’t ample to determine an offence beneath Part 3 of the POCSO Act or beneath Part 376 IPC. Although consent wouldn’t matter if the lady is a minor beneath the POCSO Act, the phrase ‘bodily relations’ can’t be transformed robotically into sexual activity not to mention sexual assault,” it held.
The court docket stated the good thing about doubt should be in favour of the accused and, subsequently, dominated, “The impugned judgement utterly lacks any reasoning and likewise doesn’t reveal or help any rationale for the conviction. Underneath such circumstances, the judgment is liable to be put aside. The appellant is acquitted”.
The criticism on this case was lodged in March 2017 by the minor lady’s mom, alleging that her 14-year-old daughter had been lured and kidnapped from her dwelling by an unknown particular person.
The minor was present in Faridabad together with the accused, who was arrested and subsequently convicted for offence of rape beneath IPC and penetrative sexual assault beneath POCSO in December 2023 and later awarded imprisonment for the rest of his life.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)