Chandigarh, January 1:
The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently acquitted a man in a rape case, citing inconsistencies in the victim’s testimony. The court also concluded that the alleged sexual intercourse appeared consensual, pointing to the fact that the victim’s clothes were not torn at the scene of the crime.
The bench, consisting of Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice Kirti Singh, remarked, “The existence of untorn clothes of the prosecutrix, at the crime site, also is magnificatory that, as such, the prosecutrix was a consensual partner to hers allegedly becoming subjected to sexual intercourse(s) at the instance of the accused Arjun Singh, especially if she was a non-consensual partner to the sexual assault, therebys her clothes would have been torn, rather than her clothes being found in an untorn condition at the crime site.”
The court was hearing an appeal against the conviction of Arjun Singh, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment under Section 376 (2)(g) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Another accused in the case had also been convicted, but the court acquitted him after noting that the victim had turned hostile during the proceedings.
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