Thane court acquits man, his parents in case of abduction and sexual assault of minor girl

Thane court acquits man, his parents in case of abduction and sexual assault of minor girl

A court in Maharashtra's Thane district has acquitted a 32-year-old man and his parents in a case of alleged abduction and sexual assault of a minor girl in 2014, noting the victim, then aged 17, had a consensual relationship with him.

The victim, who got married to the man in 2014 and now has two children, was mature enough to understand the consequences of her act, special POCSO court judge D S Deshmukh observed in the order passed on April 1.

A copy of the order was made available on Tuesday.

The three accused were charged under Indian Penal Code sections 376 (sexual assault), 366 (abduction and inducing woman to compel her marriage) and 34 (common intention) and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The prosecutor told the court that the victim and the man were residents of the same locality in Mumbra area of Thane and knew each other very well. In January 2014, the victim went to Karnataka with her mother and went missing from there. Her family members then filed a police complaint.

The victim was found in the man's house on February 13, 2014.

During questioning, it came to light that she had called the man to Pune after coming to know that her mother was fixing her marriage with someone else in Karnataka. The victim and the man stayed in Pune and at Virar in Palghar district and had a physical relationship. They got married at the Bandra court in Mumbai on February 6, 2014, the prosecution told the court.

Defence counsel Sudhakar R Parad contested all the charges against the accused.

The judge in his order said the victim, in her cross-examination, admitted she and the man had a love affair and due to caste differences, their family members did not agree to it. ''She further admitted that she now has two children, she is residing happily with the accused and has no grievance against him,'' the court said.

In the backdrop of such submissions by the victim, who is the ''star witness'' in the case, the accused cannot be held guilty of offences levelled against them, the court said.

The statement of the victim on record and her evidence clearly indicates that she herself called the man by making a phone call, voluntarily resided with him and their sexual relations were with her consent, the court said.

''Moreover, at the time of the incident, the victim was 17 years old. It means she was mature enough to understand the consequences of the act she indulged in,'' the court said.

Also, there is nothing on record to hold that the two other accused facilitated the commission of the offense by inducing the victim, the judge said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)