Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 17: High Court ruled that mere medical evidence is insufficient to establish sexual intercourse has been done on the victim by the guilt under the POCSO Act or rape charges.
Justice Sanjay Dhar has elaborated that there must be direct or circumstantial evidence connecting the accused to the act, and quashed the charges against one Basit Bashir, accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting two minor girls.
The Court said that the prosecution has failed to link the petitioner-Bashir to the alleged crimes, despite medical reports confirming the victims had engaged in sexual intercourse.
The facts of the case are an FIR registered after the father of a 14-year-old girl reported her missing. The complainant alleged that his daughter and her friend (both minors) had left home and were later found to have been sexually assaulted.
The police investigation accused petitioner-Bashir of enticing the girls into his vehicle, kidnapping them, and committing penetrative sexual assault under Section 376 of the IPC and Section 4 of the POCSO Act.
Observing that medical evidence alone cannot prove rape, Justice Dhar said that while medical reports confirmed the victims had engaged in sexual intercourse, he underscored that mere medical opinion, without corroborative evidence, cannot pin the blame on the accused.
The court said that the prosecution case collapses in the absence of any oral or scientific evidence connecting the petitioner-Bashir to the alleged sexual assault. Quashing the Charges made by the court below against the petitioner, the court said the same can only be framed if the material discloses grave suspicion supported by evidence and the prosecution must establish prima facie ingredients of the offence as mere suspicion is insufficient.
“The Special Judge under (POCSO) Act acted as a post office for the prosecution without critically evaluating gaps in the evidence as no witness testified to seeing the accused with the girls and the victims’ accounts did not implicate Bashir in kidnapping or assault.”
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