Chennai: The Madras High recently acquitted a rape convict of all charges after noting that the victim ended up having a second child through him after they were sent to mediation by the High Court to find what best could be done to the first child born to the alleged victim through the accused.
There are no rules in love and war and so say the same and this case perhaps stands as a testimony to this statement: High Court
“There are no rules in love and war and so say the same and this case perhaps stands as a testimony to this statement,” Justice N Seshasayee remarked while acquitting the accused and added, “Neither prosecution nor conviction separated the prosecutrix and the appellant. At the end of the day, parties are adults and the constitution of the country does not make a moralistic statement, wherein grant citizens their life to live and if the prosecutrix and the appellant choose their way to live on their free will.”
FIR was lodged after victim had begotten a child
As per the FIR, the prosecutrix had lost her father and was living with her maternal grand mother and accused is a distant relative of the prosecutrix and living in the neighbourhood. The accused allegedly in May 2012 entered the house of the prosecutrix and forced himself upon her and committed rape under intimidation.
DNA test confirmed accused was the father of the child
The tests suggested that the prosecutrix was around 20-22 years of age at the time of the incident. The FIR in the matter was registered after the prosecutrix had begotten a child and the DNA test confirmed that the child was born through the accused.
The prosecutrix during her cross-examination disclosed before the trial court that she had been having physical relationship with the accused multiple times over a period of time, but she never raised any objection at any time and she did not level any accusation against the accused till she begotten child. The trial court, however, overlooked this part of cross-examination and convicted the accused on all charges and sentenced the accused 10 years of imprisonment for the offence of rape.
HC referred matter to mediation to find out what best could be done for first child, however, they ended up having a second child
The accused challenged the trial court order before the High Court, which tried to find what best could be done to the child born to the prosecutrix through the appellant, for which purpose it referred the matter to mediation. The result of the mediation, however, was not a solution for the child that was already born, but on the contrary ended up with them having a second child.
With considerable amusement, the High Court tried to ascertain the fact about the second child and the government advocate on instruction by the investigating agency reported that the said statement is true and the counsel for the accused even circulated the birth certificate of the second child born to the accused.
“There is no precious thing the legal system can do except recording its finding that in this instant case, prosecution has not been able to establish that there indeed was a crime. In fact, there is an abuse of judicial process when the prosecutrix set a criminal law in motion, perhaps with a false FIR. But then, that is a story of the past and this court does not intent to revisit the issue,” Justice N Seshasayee said while setting aside the conviction by the trial court and acquitting the accused of all charges.
