New Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Wednesday acquitted two rape convicts on finding the prosecution’s theory “full of holes” raising grave suspicion.
A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran referred to a Supreme Court verdict which cautioned against false allegation of rape as it caused distress, damage and humiliation to the accused though rape led to greatest distress.
The bench said a court should be equally careful in protecting the accused from a false implication.
“We find difficulty in accepting their testimony to be one having sterling quality. We cannot also say that the story as narrated by the victims inspires confidence. Looking for assurance, we find the entire narration to be unbelievable and not substantiated on its finer details,” it said.
The top court’s verdict came on an appeal filed by two accused persons who challenged the Bombay High Court’s July 2024 order, which dismissed their appeal against a trial court’s July 2003 order.
The trial court convicted them in a case of abduction and rape of two women in June, 2000.
There were a total of four accused, two of whom were only convicted on the abduction charge.
The high court, however, allowed the appeal of the duo and acquitted them.
The punishment of the two accused, who were before the top court, was confirmed by the high court.
In its verdict, the top court noted both the trial court and the high court placed a heavy reliance on the testimony of a witness who saw the alleged survivors with a child travelling in a vehicle, in which the four accused were purportedly travelling.
The bench said, “Strangely”, the witness did not identify either of the accused as having travelled in the tempo.
“The story put up by the prosecution, as spoken of by prosecution witnesses (alleged victims), is full of holes and it raises a grave suspicion in our minds which qualifies as reasonable doubt,” the bench said.
While allowing the appeal, the top court acquitted both the accused and set aside the orders of the subordinate courts.
The accused, it directed, if in custody, should be released if not wanted in any other case.
The prosecution alleged that the two women, who were going to Kurla, boarded a tempo in which the four accused were travelling.
The accused refused to stop the vehicle in Kurla and the women were taken to a field where two accused raped them, it added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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