Delhi: Man acquitted of charge of gangrape

New Delhi: A man, who was accused of gang raping a woman along with his two associates after giving her sedatives-laced drink, has been acquitted by a Delhi court which said the alleged victim has turned "hostile" and there was no evidence that she was raped at all.

Additional Sessions Judge Nivedita Anil Sharma freed Manpreet, resident of Ranhola in west Delhi, after the woman deposed that she has no grievance against him and she had established physical relations with co-accused Vipin Lakra, who was earlier acquitted in the case, with her own consent.

Co-accused Lakra and Satpal were acquitted by the court in May this year. The court said that the woman has not deposed an iota of evidence of her being intoxicated and raped at all.

"She has not even mentioned the word 'rape' in her evidence nor has deposed anything incriminating against the accused Manpreet," the court said, adding that the woman has turned hostile.

"It is clear that the claim of the prosecution is neither reliable nor believable and is not trustworthy and prosecution has failed to establish the offence of intoxication and gang rape against accused. The evidence of the prosecutrix makes it highly improbable that such an incident ever took place," the court said, while acquitting Manpreet.

According to the police, on December 31, 2013, Manpreet along with Lakra and Satpal had given a sedatives-laced cold drink to the woman and thereafter, the trio raped her in a plot in Ranhola Extension.

A supplementary charge sheet was filed against Manpreet. The woman, however, deposed before the court that none of the accused persons had gangraped her after intoxicating her. She had developed friendship with Lakra on facebook and she had physical relations with him several times with her free consent, she told the court adding that he has never forced her in any manner to have physical relations.

She also said that she did not have any grievance against Manpreet and prayed that he may be acquitted. She also said that she did not know Manpreet and also failed to identify him in court.