NEW DELHI: A man sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2014 for raping a woman after confining her in a house for nine months has been acquitted by the Delhi High Court, which ruled that the case was full of “inconsistencies and improbabilities”.
Justice C Hari Shankar allowed an appeal by the man, Shiva, against the trial court’s verdict.
The high court said that the man should be freed forthwith unless his incarceration was required in any other case.
“The case of the prosecutrix, as sought to be set up against the appellant (Shiva) is, therefore, replete with inconsistencies, improbabilities and imponderables and cannot, therefore, in the opinion of this court, suffice to convict the appellant of having committed ‘rape’ on the prosecutrix, or even of having assaulted her in any other manner,” the court said.
The prosecution had alleged that in 2012, when the woman was travelling in a train, the man covered her mouth with a handkerchief, after which she became unconscious.
On regaining consciousness, she found herself in a room where the man allegedly raped her repeatedly.
Two of his friends had also raped her, she alleged.