Court acquits four men in 2019 gang rape case

Mumbai, Feb 24 (PTI) Citing a lack of reliable evidence, a special POCSO Act court here has acquitted four men accused of the gang-rape of a mentally disabled girl.

Additional Sessions Judge Ashwini D Lokhande, in the verdict delivered on February 5, ordered immediate release of the accused who were in prison since August 2019.

A copy of the order became available this week.

The prosecution's case was based on unreliable evidence and did not connect the accused with the offence, the special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act court said.

Further, no common intention of the accused to commit the act was proved, it said.

"The prosecution miserably failed to establish the guilt of the accused beyond all possibilities," the judge said, adding that a conviction cannot be based on mere suspicion.

As per the informant, the victim's sister, her mentally disabled sister who was then a minor was lured away to a jungle in Sakinaka area by four men on August 20, 2019, and raped.

But when the trial began, the victim could not be examined in the court as she was said to have gone missing from Bihar in 2024.

The court noted that she had recorded her statement before a magistrate, but the police failed to record the same with the help of a special educator or interpreter despite knowing she had moderate intellectual disability with an IQ of 36. PTI AVI KRK