Delhi court acquits man in stalking case, says benefit of ‘shoddy’ probe must be given to accused

The Delhi court said the benefit of shoddy investigation has to be given to the accused. (Representational photo)

The benefit of a “shoddy” probe has to be given to the accused, a Delhi court has said while acquitting a man of the charges of stalking a woman and making threatening calls to her.

The Bihar native was accused of making abusive calls to the girl from his friend’s cell phone and threatening her. Metropolitan Magistrate Niti Phutela, while acquitting the man, noted that the friend’s statement was never recorded and the police could not establish the case against the accused.

“There is neither any statement of the person (friend)…nor the disclosure statement of accused. Hence, accused cannot be connected with the calls made from the mobile number which was allegedly being used by one person….Thus, the benefit of shoddy investigation has to be given to the accused. The prosecution has miserably failed to prove the guilt of accused,” the magistrate said.

Regarding the offence of threat, the court said the complainant never mentioned before it that the accused had abused her or threatened her in any way. “Hence, the prosecution witnesses were even not able to show that any language was used against the complainant which intruded upon her privacy by the caller,” it said.

According to the prosecution, a complaint was lodged by the woman alleging that on January 31, 2015 she received several calls from two numbers at odd hours and was threatened and abused by the caller. After investigation, the police arrested the accused in April 2015 under sections 354D (stalking) and 509 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC. The accused had denied the allegations levelled against him.