NEW DELHI: A man has been acquitted of the charge of raping his sister-in-law after the death of her husband by a Delhi court which said the case was "not free from suspicion".
The court said facts of the case showed that the woman wanted to marry her husband's younger brother after the death of her spouse, but when the accused refused to tie the knot with her, she lodged the complaint against him.
"It is gathered from the facts and circumstances that the woman wanted to marry the accused after the death of her husband but somehow the accused was not willing. It made the woman annoyed and she lodged the complaint," Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain said, while acquitting the man, a resident of Govind Puri in south Delhi.
The court said the investigating officer did not try to find out the relation of the woman with her in-laws after her husband's death and whether marriage talks were going on between her and the accused.
"I am of the view that this case is not free from suspicion. It would be highly unsafe to base the conviction of the accused on the basis of evidence and material available on record. I, therefore, acquit the accused of the offence punishable under section 376 IPC giving him benefit of doubt," the judge said.
According to the prosecution, the woman lodged a complaint at Govind Puri Police Station against the man in June 2014, alleging that her brother-in-law had raped her when nobody was at home. She alleged that when she told her mother -in-law about the incident, she fought with her and threatened to throw her out of the matrimonial house.
During trial, the man claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case by the woman as she used to pressurise him to marry her after the death of her husband and when he refused, she filed the complaint against him.
The court, in its judgment, said the inconsistencies, improvements and contradictions coming in the woman's testimony go to the root of the case and her deposition cannot be said to be of sterling quality. No implicit reliance can be placed on her, it said.