Court acquits man accused of sexually assaulting minor

Mumbai, Nov 12 (PTI) A court here has acquitted a 34-year-old man, accused of sexually assaulting a minor girl, ruling that even though the prosecution successfully proved that the incident did take place, it could not establish that the accused was the perpetrator of the crime.

The alleged incident took place in June 2017 in Goregaon area of Mumbai when the victim had gone to a general store near her school to purchase a compass box.

The accused allegedly has several other sexual assault cases registered against him.

In the present case, the accused was facing trial for offences, including aggravated penetrative sexual assault, rape, kidnapping and criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Special court judge Neeta Anekar had last month acquitted the accused of all charges.

In the order made available on Wednesday, the court concluded that "the victim is the sole witness to the incident, and her testimony is clear and convincing about the incident".

The court underlined that the victim's testimony has sufficiently brought on record the incident which has taken place with her.

The judge, however, said that though the prosecution has proved the crime against the victim, it had "failed to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that the perpetrator of the crime was the accused and accused before the court and no one else".

"Therefore, though it is proved by the prosecution that the victim was minor and was sexually assaulted, it is not proven that the accused was the same person who committed rape on the minor," the court ruled.

The court also raised doubts on the Test Identification Parade (TIP) conducted during the investigation.

It was unsafe to rely on the victim's in-court identification, especially since the accused was a stranger to her, it said. PTI AVI NP