A trial court in Jammu has acquitted a man in a case involving allegations that he raped his niece, on finding that it was a false and frivolous rape case that was also marked by a botched, manipulated and tainted police investigation.
Judge Amarjeet Singh Langeh passed the order. The trial court expressed that it was baffled by how a tainted investigation and a false rape complaint led to the accused man’s imprisonment for a year and seven months, and destroyed his reputation.The court said it was shocked at how in cases like this, police officers assume that they can take the law into their own hands.
"It is because of tainted and fabricated investigation that accused seems to have faced trauma of being framed up in an occurrence which never took place. Whole investigation therefore is nothing but tainted... Indeed, accused has been falsely framed up in a frivolous case on account of botched up, fabricated, deliberately manipulated and tainted investigation. Accused is therefore acquitted," the May 29 order said.
The court proceeded to order a departmental inquiry against the investigation officer (IO) in the case, as well as his supervising officer. The judge directed the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Jammu to initiate the inquiry.The court added that the niece who filed the false complaint should also face a case under Section 182 of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) for giving false information.
Moreover, the court has also ordered the authorities to launch an inquiry into two witnesses - an NGO worker and a housewife - who were alleged to have instigated the complainant to file the false rape case.If the inquiry finds the instigation allegations to be true, criminal action should be taken against them as per the law, the court said.
The case concerned allegations by a 20-21-year-old woman that her uncle entered her room in the middle of the night in May 2022 and raped her twice.The complainant stated that she did not immediately inform her parents because her father was suffering from paralysis and she lacked courage to disclose the incident.
According to her testimony, she contacted her brother, who was away in Beas, Punjab. Thereafter, she is said to have contacted her cousin, who provided her with mobile numbers of two NGO workers.
She stated that she then approached the police station with her mother and the two NGO workers, where a first information report (FIR) was lodged. The uncle was booked for rape. He was arrested in May 2022, and remained in jail until December 2023, when he was granted bail.
However, the trial court has found that there was no medical evidence to support the rape allegations against the accused, that the testimony of the victim (niece/ complainant) was highly doubtful and that the investigation into the case was marked by serious lapses.With respect to the victim's testimony, the Court noted that she had claimed that the accused man had stayed in the room for 30 to 45 minutes and raped her twice.
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