Purola 'abduction' case: Court acquits two accused after victim retracts statement

Dehradun, Jul 18 (PTI) Two persons accused of trying to abduct a minor girl in Uttarakhand's Purola, which had sparked communal tension in the hill town a year ago, have been acquitted by a court after the victim said the accused were only accompanying her to a tailor's shop at her own request.

The girl told the court that she was looking for a tailor's shop in the Purola market. She asked the accused for help who guided her to a tailor's shop, according to the court order.

They made no attempt to take her anywhere, she said, retracting her initial statement to the police on the basis of which Uvaid Khan and Jitendra Saini had been booked under Section 366 A (inducing a minor to go from anywhere) read with Section 511 of the IPC, and Section 7, read with Section 8 of the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act).

A chargesheet had also been filed in the case against the accused.

The victim's uncle had told the police in his complaint that his neighbour Ashish Chunar who ran a computer shop in Purola market had informed him on the phone that the accused were taking the girl in a tempo to Naugaon about 18 km away.

However, on the basis of the girl's changed statement and examination of the prosecution witnesses, Special Sessions Judge Uttarkashi Gurbakhsh Singh acquitted the two, saying the charges could not be proved.

The accused were on bail in the case when the special sessions judge absolved them of the charges on May 10 this year.

It is not clear why the court's order was not put into public domain immediately.

The incident had put Purola on the boil. Posters had appeared on shops owned by Muslims, doing business in the small hill town for generations, asking them to leave or face the consequences.

Many of them left the town and took shelter in other places. The district administration had to impose curfew to prevent right-wing Hindu outfits from staging a 'mahapanchayat' in protest against the incident in Purola.

Many of those who left the town out of fear returned after the tension subsided but many others did not. PTI ALM ALM SKY SKY