MUMBAI: An “unnatural” year-and-a-half delay in lodging an FIR has led to the acquittal of a 42-year-old deputy income tax commissioner accused of sexually assaulting his 13-year-old domestic help in 2017. The special Pocso Act court asked why her family, a member of which was employed in the maternal house of the estranged wife of the accused for decades, didn’t lodge an FIR immediately after the incident.
The accused and his wife are in the midst of divorce proceedings.The court said while it was probable the girl’s character wouldn’t have been put at stake because of a dispute between couple, the conduct of the prosecution witnesses and delay in lodging FIR created doubt in prosecution’s case.
The accused was arrested in 2018 but granted bail. The minor deposed that he threatened to release her nude pictures if she complained to anybody. “The question is why the investigating officer did not seize the phone to verify if accused had such photographs,” it said.