[POCSO] 14-year-old's father, uncle accused of raping her acquitted; Court says girl influenced by mother

A 14-year-old girl's father and uncle, who had spent 3 years in jail after they were accused of raping the girl, were acquitted by a special court which hears cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) [The State of Maharashtra vs Abdulrehman Shahjadhussain Shaikh & Anr.].The brothers were acquitted by the Court on the ground that the minor girl was under the influence of her mother, whom her father had divorced."In present case the oral evidence of the prosecutrix victim is itself not reliable. She is under the influence of her mother who has separated from the husband and mother-in-law," the Court heldThe complainant, the minor girl's mother, had alleged that on November 12, 2018, she and the daughter had fled the house after arguing with her husband about claims that he and his brother had raped the minor girl on multiple occasions.The prosecution called the girl and her mother, as well as the medical officer who examined the kid and three other witnesses, to testify that the charges levelled against the brothers were correct..Special Judge Preeti Kumar Ghule mentioned that it is a well settled position in law that a child witness can be tutored."It is also settled position that the child can be easily tutored. There is grudge on behalf of the complainant against accused no. 1 and 2. It has to be seen that the accused are not falsely implicated," the Court said..The Court noted that the evidence made it amply clear that the survivor's parents quarreled frequently. However, the child denied any quarrels between them having taken place."The victim is denying about quarrels between her father and mother shows that the victim is not truthful. Her evidence is therefore to be scrutinized keeping in mind that, she has falsely denied about strained relation, quarrelsome relation between her father and mother. This child is not fully reliable, she deviates from truth, is observed," the judgment stated.The Court, therefore, opined that since the survivor had deviated from the truth in her statement, her evidence needed to be scrutinised with caution."The victim has falsely denied that her parents did not always quarrel. This shows that the prosecutrix is concealing true facts and is not reliable at the outset. She is not speaking truth can be easily gathered as her deposition contradicts the deposition of her mother on material aspect of strained relations," the judge observed..The Court held that omission of material facts on part of the child witness in her police statement further discredited her evidence."According to the victim several times she was subjected to penetrative sexual intercourse by her father and the latest was 11th November at 06.30 am. The statement before police has omission about penetrative sexual intercourse by her father on 11/11/2018 at 06.30. Hence, the same needs to be discarded from the evidence," it stated..Pertinently, the Court noted that the medical evidence which showed that the survivor's hymen was intact, ruled out possibility of any insertions into the survivor's private parts as was claimed in the complaint.The Court relied upon the deposition of the medical officer who had examined the victim."The Medical Officer PW5 who examined the victim found 'hymen intact'. The penetrative sexual intercourse by two men, at different times will not give report 'hymen intact'. This is sufficient to discard the allegation of penetrative sexual assault by accused no. 1 and 2 at different time and different place on victim," the judgment said..The Court, therefore, acquitted both the accused of all the charges levelled against them and ordered for them to be released from jail immediately. The accused had spent 3 years in jail.[Read Judgment]