POCSO Court Acquits Elderly Man Accused Of Raping Granddaughter, Says Victim Testimony Not Reliable

A special POCSO court in Mumbai has recently acquitted a 60-year-old man accused of raping his granddaughter as it didn’t find the victim’s testimony “trustworthy”.

Special Judge Kalpna Patil, presiding over the court set up under the POCSO Act, acquitted the accused on September 5, but a detailed order was made available on Friday.

The court in its order, stated, “Considering different names given by the victim girl at different stages of the investigation and her act of hiding the name of the person who was having physical relations with her, oral evidence of the victim girl does not appear trustworthy.”

The court noted, her testimony is also not supported by any other evidence.

As per the prosecution, the victim (a minor) resided with her grandparents. In June 2018, the girl fainted before her grandfather and was taken to a hospital, where it came to light that she was pregnant.

Therefore, on June 22, 2018, she gave birth to a girl child. Thereafter, her grandfather filed a police complaint against an unknown person, it said.

During an inquiry, the victim told the police she established a physical relationship with a boy due to which she got pregnant. Later, she gave another statement, stating her grandfather had forceful sexual relations with her and also threatened her not to disclose his act to anyone else.

The girl told the police that she came to know about her pregnancy in October 2017. The victim also informed the police about burn injuries on her private parts allegedly inflected by the elderly relative with cigarettes or matchstick, it said.

The court order stated, that the victim has admitted that when she missed her menstrual cycle, she disclosed this fact to her friend and went to hospital along with her friend’s mother.

Therefore, the question arises as to why the victim didn’t disclose the misdeeds of the accused to them.

Furthermore, the court stated that victim admitted that the accused used to leave home and stay out for some days.

Also, the accused, who is her grandfather, filed a missing person complaint in 2015 when she left home without informing her family members.

The court noted that the victim was out of control of the accused for some days.

Her evidence is silent as to why during that period, the victim didn’t approached the police against the alleged sexual harassment or burn injuries inflicted by the grandfather, asked the prosecution.

The judge noted, “Considering all the facts and circumstances, I have come to the conclusion that the prosecution has failed to prove the charge against the accused.”