Priest Acquitted in Rape Case

By Nirnimesh Kumar
The Hindu
October 12, 2017

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/priest-acquitted-in-rape-case/article19841840.ece

Court says testimony of victim not of ‘sterling quality’

Observing that “the testimony of the prosecutrix does not appear to be of sterling quality,” a Delhi court has acquitted a priest of rape charge. The accused, Pandit Shiv Dutt Sharma, stayed near the house of the victim.

“The testimony of the prosecutrix does not appear to be of sterling quality. There are embellishments and exaggerations in the testimony of the prosecutrix which go to the root of the case. The things appear to have not happened in the manner they have been projected,” Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain said while acquitting the accused, Pandit Shivdutt Sharma.

The woman, in her complaint lodged at the Jaitpur police station in south Delhi, alleged that the accused had sexually assaulted her at his house when she went to meet him to get an auspicious date for the marriage of her brother’s son.

Engagement of kin

But the court dismissed her complaint reiterated in her statement recorded by a Metropolitan Magistrate and in the evidence recorded in the trial of the case.

“From the evidence discussed, I am of the view that the circumstances appearing in this case when examined... do not lead to any decisive conclusion that the accused Pandit Shiv Dutt Sharma committed sexual intercourse with the prosecutrix without her consent after intoxicating her and caused her injuries,” the Judge said.

The accused, in his defence, said that he had been falsely implicated by the victim as she suspected that he had a role in breaking the engagement of her ‘brother’s son.

He further stated that the prosecutrix had told him that she had suffered a loss of ?40 lakh due to the breaking of the engagement and would recover it from him. Since she was an influential lady, due to fear, he did not lodge a complaint. He examined two witnesses in support of his allegations.

The court admitted the evidence by his two witnesses, with the judge saying “I do not find any reason to disbelieve them.”