Lucknow : A Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court has acquitted a man who was sentenced to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment for allegedly abducting a minor girl, holding that the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that she was a minor and questioning the trial court’s assessment of her age.
Justice Subhash Vidyarthi set aside the Feb 8, 2013, judgment of an Unnao additional sessions court, which had convicted Bhaiya Lal Raidas under Section 366 of the IPC and imposed a seven-year jail term along with a fine of Rs 10,000. The high court noted that both a doctor and a radiologist had assessed the girl’s age around 18 years. However, the trial court independently concluded, on the basis of her teeth and physical features, that she was between 14 and 17 years old. 1993, neither the original document nor a copy was produced before the trial court, and it was never formally exhibited Although the girl referred to a Class VIII marksheet showing her date of birth as Sept 25.
The bench observed that the trial court had effectively substituted its own opinion for that of medical experts. The court also found deficiencies in the evidence regarding the girl’s date of birth. Her father neither mentioned her age in the FIR nor claimed to know her exact age or date of birth during his testimony. The court also considered the girl’s inconsistent statements. Before a magistrate, she had stated that she voluntarily accompanied the accused, wished to marry him and did not want to return to her parents. However, during the trial, she alleged that the accused had rendered her unconscious and taken her to Ludhiana. Noting that she lived with the accused in a rented house in Ludhiana for about seven months without alleging force during that period, the high court held that her testimony lacked the level of reliability required to sustain a conviction and acquitted the accused.