31 years after rape case was filed, man acquitted

| TNN | Updated: Apr 3, 2018, 05:29 IST
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MUMBAI: Thirty-one years after being charged with gangrape, a 62-year-old man was acquitted last week by the sessions court, bringing the curtains down on one of its oldest pending cases.
With the victim, her husband and other key witnesses dead, and the investigating officer who retired in 1994 unable to recall details of the case, the court acquitted Chembur resident Abdul Shaikh.
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An FIR accusing Shaikh of raping his maternal aunt, along with another accomplice, had been filed with the Chembur police on September 28, 1986. Shaikh, who had been living in West Asia since, returned five years ago and was arrested last September. Shaikh's lawyer Tariq Khan said he was released from jail after the acquittal last Tuesday.


The case against the other accused, Sayyed Ibrahim, was abated after he died on January 31, 2014, during the long pendency of the trial.


In the FIR, the woman told the police that on September 17, 1986, at about 7.30pm, she was cooking when she realized she had run out of kerosene. She stepped out to borrow kerosene from a friend in the neighbourhood. As soon as she entered a lane, Shaikh, then 31, and Ibrahim, accosted and gagged her and took her into a room. They raped her and threatened her to keep quiet.


The woman said she was shocked and could not even shout for help since both the accused were her relatives. Initially, she could not confide in her husband out of fear, but a week later she mustered the courage to go to the cops with her husband.


Only two witnesses, the officer who recorded the FIR and the investigating officer, could depose during the trial that began last November. During the trial, the defence said the victim had falsely implicated Shaikh as he had asked her to vacate the rented premises. "For lack of evidence, the defence of the accused appears probable," the court said.

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