Delhi: Man charged with voyeurism, using force to disrobe woman gets acquitted

New Delhi: The judges of a lower court here has acquitted a man who was facing trials for using criminal force against a woman with an intent to disrobe her and allegedly taking objectionable pictures of her bathing after it observed that the allegations were based on a premeditated complaint without any element of truth. Suspect in this case Babu Sahab Rai had allegedly committed the offense between July 2012 and November 11, 2016. According to the complainant, Rai had also insulted her modesty. Metropolitan Magistrate Alka Singh in the court order said, “It can conclusively be held that the complainant has failed to prove the case against the accused beyond reasonable doubt and therefore, the accused is acquitted of the offences under sections 354B (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe her), 354C (voyeurism) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC),” said in a recent order. The order also said the complainant had alleged that Rai had assaulted her and beaten her up on several occasions, but no medical records were submitted as evidence. Apart from the husband of the complainant, no other witness was examined by the prosecution, the court said. Further, it said there was nothing on record to substantiate the allegation that Rai took pictures of the complainant while she was bathing and the claims were merely “empty and hollow oral imputations”. Noting that no such photographs were retrieved by police, the court said in the absence of evidence, it would be “highly unjustifiable to hold the accused liable for the alleged act of voyeurism”. It also said the complainant’s role in the entire sequence of events appeared to be “dubious”. “What is more bizarre here is the fact that the complainant admitted to having written letters to the accused, although claiming it to be under pressure, but such an averment appears to be a pretence…(and) a volitional act,” the court said. Noting that the complainant had first alleged that she was raped by Rai and later said the accused, on various occasions, attempted to rape her, the court said her version was “contradictory”. “Thus, she herself was not consistent and forthright in her asseverations…and if it was indeed a case of rape then again, no charges for the said offence were pressed against the accused at the time,” the magistrate said. She said even when charges were framed against the accused, the complainant did not prefer an appeal. “Thus, all in all, the present case appears to be a premeditated complaint without any element of truth in it and therefore, the same cannot be made a basis for convicting the accused or holding him liable in any respect,” the court said. The Uttam Nagar police station here had registered an FIR against Rai on the basis of the complainant’s statement.