Mumbai man held for abuse of 22 girls acquitted in 10-year-old’s case | Mumbai News – Times of India
MUMBAI: Observing that the prosecution utterly failed to prove that accused had outraged the modesty of the 10-year-old girl, wrongfully restrained and threatened her, a special Pocso court this month acquitted Rehan Abdul Qureshi (38).
Qureshi is booked in several cases of sexually abusing 22 girls in the city and around. In this case from 2015, the judge pointed out that it was difficult to believe that the victim identified the accused in a police line-up four years after the incident especially when the purported assault took place in the dark.The judge further said the test identification parade was not conducted legally.
It was observed that dummy persons similar to accused did not feature in the line-up. The naib tehsildar who conducted the identification parade admitted Whe did not know how many cases were pending against this accused but he had conducted the test identification against him in many cases on the same date.
“…for that reason also test identification parade is doubtful. Panch witness on panchnama prepared by Naib Tahsildar has not been examined. The memorandum statement did not show even the dummy person is not of the same age. He has not mentioned the description of all the dummy persons in memorandum statement. Therefore, identification parade is not lawfully conducted and it is doubtful,” the judge said.
Qureshi will continue to remain in jail.
Qureshi’s lawyer Nazneen Khatri denied the allegations and said that he had been falsely implicated. Khatri submitted that there is no molestation, no touching of body part, and that description of the accused was not mentioned in the statement of victim. It was also argued that the test identification is doubtful. “Victim admitted that there was darkness. Mother has not seen the accused. Prosecution has utterly failed to prove the charges levelled against the accused,” Khatri submitted.
The FIR in this case was registered on Dec 5, 2015. The alleged incident took place on the same day when the girl went out to get some books. When the child returned after four hours at 7.30 pm, during which time her parents were frantically looking for her, she told them about someone having sexually abused her.
Referring to the child’s statement, the judge said that while she submitted in court that she had described the accused to the cops, but in her police statement there is no description of the person. “The evidence of victim that she gave description of that person to the police is after-thought version made to fill up lacuna in evidence of prosecution witness one [mother],” the judge said. The mother was unaware of the identity of the accused.
Accepting the defence of the accused, the judge said that age, height, skin colour, appearance of all dummy persons in identification parade have not been mentioned in the relevant document despite it being mandatory.
Qureshi is booked in several cases of sexually abusing 22 girls in the city and around. In this case from 2015, the judge pointed out that it was difficult to believe that the victim identified the accused in a police line-up four years after the incident especially when the purported assault took place in the dark.The judge further said the test identification parade was not conducted legally.
It was observed that dummy persons similar to accused did not feature in the line-up. The naib tehsildar who conducted the identification parade admitted Whe did not know how many cases were pending against this accused but he had conducted the test identification against him in many cases on the same date.
“…for that reason also test identification parade is doubtful. Panch witness on panchnama prepared by Naib Tahsildar has not been examined. The memorandum statement did not show even the dummy person is not of the same age. He has not mentioned the description of all the dummy persons in memorandum statement. Therefore, identification parade is not lawfully conducted and it is doubtful,” the judge said.
Qureshi will continue to remain in jail.
Qureshi’s lawyer Nazneen Khatri denied the allegations and said that he had been falsely implicated. Khatri submitted that there is no molestation, no touching of body part, and that description of the accused was not mentioned in the statement of victim. It was also argued that the test identification is doubtful. “Victim admitted that there was darkness. Mother has not seen the accused. Prosecution has utterly failed to prove the charges levelled against the accused,” Khatri submitted.
The FIR in this case was registered on Dec 5, 2015. The alleged incident took place on the same day when the girl went out to get some books. When the child returned after four hours at 7.30 pm, during which time her parents were frantically looking for her, she told them about someone having sexually abused her.
Referring to the child’s statement, the judge said that while she submitted in court that she had described the accused to the cops, but in her police statement there is no description of the person. “The evidence of victim that she gave description of that person to the police is after-thought version made to fill up lacuna in evidence of prosecution witness one [mother],” the judge said. The mother was unaware of the identity of the accused.
Accepting the defence of the accused, the judge said that age, height, skin colour, appearance of all dummy persons in identification parade have not been mentioned in the relevant document despite it being mandatory.
