A special court in Maharashtra's Thane district has acquitted a 25-year-old man accused of stalking and assaulting a minor girl, citing a lack of substantial evidence against him.
Special judge D S Deshmukh acquitted the man booked under section 354 (assault or use of criminal force on a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code dealing with stalking and criminal intimidation and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
A copy of the order dated April 4 was made available on Monday.
The prosecution alleged that the accused stalked and outraged the modesty of the 15-year-old girl between August 2020 and January 8, 2021.
Defence counsel Sudhakar R Parad contested the allegation and punched holes in the prosecution's case and the police investigation.
The court found the prosecution's evidence insufficient to establish the accused's guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Judge Deshmukh, in his order, emphasised the importance of substantial evidence, stating, "In such circumstances, only corroborative evidence cannot be relied upon to hold the accused guilty." The prosecution presented three witnesses — the girl, her father and the investigating officer.
While the court acknowledged the birth certificate established the victim was a minor, it found the testimony of the primary witnesses lacking.
Judge Deshmukh noted that the testimony of the girl's father did not support the prosecution's case, and he had admitted to giving a false statement against the accused due to a misunderstanding.
The court also pointed out that the girl, in her testimony, admitted that she lodged the complaint against the accused to break off her friendship with him and stated that she had been frightened while recording her statement.
It observed that the evidence suggested a friendship between the girl and the accused, which her father disapproved of, and concluded that neither witness provided incriminating evidence against the accused.
It further held that there was no evidence on record to hold that the accused had published photographs of the girl on Instagram with the intent to harm her reputation and defame her
