Testimony of victim 'inconsistent' and 'unreliable': Delhi Court acquits dentist in 2018 rape case

New Delhi: Asserting that the victim's testimony was inconsistent and unreliable, a Delhi Court recently acquitted a dentist of a charge of raping a woman in April 2018. The court further declared that the prosecution had not succeeded in proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Considering the uncertainties surrounding the reliability of the victim's statement, which was deemed 'inconsistent and self-contradictions' by the court, Additional sessions judge Snighdha Sarvaria said that due to the improvements and variations in every successive version of her statement, the woman's testimony became unfit to be accepted at face value.

“The self-contradictory statements make her an unreliable witness," observed the court.

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The aforementioned case involves a woman who claimed that a dentist residing in Joshi Colony, Delhi, invited her to his residence and sexually assaulted her by drugging her soft drink in April 2018. Additionally, she accused the individual of threatening to circulate a video of the assault and subsequently making sexually explicit comments and gestures towards her.

However, the doctor has been acquitted in this case after the court said that the prosecution failed to establish its case against the accused as the complainant was an unreliable witness.

“No other eyewitness… has been cited or examined by the prosecution. There is no corroborative electronic evidence on record, in the form of CCTV footage, audio/video recordings; (no) alleged nude video of the prosecutrix, if any, ever found on the electronic devices of the accused, and there is no medical or biological evidence against the accused, etc.” observed the court.

According to Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj, a filmmaker and equal rights activist, the woman is accused of having levelled similar allegations to another man apart from the doctor. He said that the allegations are false and the court should take strict action against such false cases.

Speaking to The TOI, he said “False rape cases are wreaking havoc in people’s lives. Here’s a doctor who was only doing his duty and had to suffer a false rape case because of a monetary dispute. Six years is a long time for an innocent person to suffer.”

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