Child born to ‘rape’ victim helps set free the accused

A child born out of an alleged rape became the very evidence that helped free the accused when the baby’s DNA test exposed that the father was another man.

The Delhi High Court dismissed the plea by the minor girl, who had complained against a man in her neighbourhood of raping her regularly with the assistance of his wife. The neighbourhood is located under the Mayur Vihar police station.

Pregnancy noticed

The court gave the decision after the DNA test of the baby born to the girl revealed that the accused was not the biological father. The court questioned why the girl, then 17-year-old, had not disclosed in her complaint that she had physical relations with someone else.

“Seemingly when victim’s pregnancy emerged and came to the notice of her family members, she, to avoid legal proceedings against the actual perpetrator of the crime, put blame upon the respondents [the man and his wife] for establishing physical relations with her on several occasions,” Justice S. P. Garg noted.

Complaint lodged

In her complaint lodged on April 2015, the girl disclosed that man would sexually assault her at his house after criminal intimidation, while his wife would instigate and assist her husband in the crime.

The girl claimed she did not disclose the incident to her parents out of fear. Finally when she became pregnant and her parents came to know about it, she told them about her ‘ordeal’.

On her complaint, a chargesheet was filed against the couple for offences such as rape, criminal intimidation, and various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

The court, however, noted that though physical relations were allegedly established with her on several occasions at the residence of the man in the presence of his wife, at no stage did the girl raise an alarm or informed her parents or relatives.

“There was no occasion for the prosecutrix [girl] to visit the respondents’ residence time and again once she had undergone the trauma of alleged commission of rape,” the judge said.

At the time of medical examination, no injuries were found on her body, including private parts. She also did not inform anyone about her pregnancy.

FIR charge

It was detected by her sister when she saw her abdomen and told the family about it. The couple was then accused in the first information report on multiple counts of sexual assault. The girl delivered the child during the course of investigation.