Thane court acquits man of rape charges after decade-long legal battle

Thane, Jan 16 (PTI) A court in Maharashtra’s Thane has acquitted a 40-year-old man of charges involving repeated rape and criminal intimidation, highlighting several inconsistencies in the testimony of the complainant.

In his order of January 12, a copy of which was made available on Thursday, Additional Sessions Judge D S Deshmukh held that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

The complainant, a sister-in-law of the accused, had alleged that the man had exploited her financial vulnerability and her daughter’s illness to repeatedly rape her between November 2014 and April 2015. She further claimed that the accused had threatened to kill her husband.

Judge Deshmukh pointed to the lack of "resistance" by the woman. “If she was scared of his threats and wanted to resist his sexual activities, she could have lodged a complaint immediately,” he said.

It also said, “There is a money dispute as prosectrix (complainant) has admitted in her examination-in-chief that she has taken money from the accused from time to time for medical treatment of her daughter. Therefore, the defence taken by the accused on the dispute of money the present case was registered against him is acceptable.” After reviewing the evidence of six prosecution witnesses, including medical officers and investigating officers, the court concluded that the testimony of the woman did not “inspire confidence”, dropping all charges against the accused. PTI COR NR