DINDIGUL: Days after a Mahila court in the district acquitted the sole accused in the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl from Dindigul, her parents said that they would appeal against the acquittal.
The incident
The victim's body was found at her house in Dindigul on April 16, 2019 with an electric wire wound around her neck and inserted into her nose and mouth; electricity was coursing through her body. A 17-year-old boy, their neighbour, was arrested 10 days later.
The prosecution
An autopsy revealed that she was raped and asphyxiated. The prosecution's case was that the accused trespassed into the house of the victim and raped her. He then constricted her neck with a wire, inserted the wire into her nose and mouth, and electrocuted her. The police chargesheeted the accused under Section 449, 302 of the IPC, and sections 5 and 6 (Punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the POCSO Act, 2012.
The judgment
According to the judgment delivered by Sessions Judge S Purushothaman on September 29, the prosecution failed to prove the charges. A major flaw was that the confession statement recorded by the counsellor of Dindigul Child Protection Office was not submitted before the court.
The judge opined that he cannot believe the statement of one Priya* who claimed to have spotted the accused coming out of the victim's house when she went to attend nature's call. "Priya's version that she, being a woman, used the vacant place near the back of the victim's house to attend nature's call is not at all acceptable by any prudent man," the judge said. Moreover, Priya's house has bathroom facility, he added.
The police claim that the accused electrocuted the girl contradicted the autopsy report which stated she died of asphyxiation. If the police believed the former version, they ought to have seized the electric wires and checked whether the wires had the fingerprints of the accused, but the wires were not seized, the judge said.
Gang rape?
The parents of the victim alleged that it could be a gang rape and two more persons could have been involved. Deputy President of All India Democratic Women's Association (Dindigul wing) R Vanaja told TNIE that the association would help the victim's parents appeal against the order. "The other two accused are known to the accused but they were deliberately let off the hook," she alleged.
Meanwhile, NTK chief coordinator Seeman urged the government to appeal against the acquittal.