Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 29: Principal Sessions Judge Udhampur YP Bourney has discharged father and his three sons in rape case with the observations that allegations against the accused are too vague and absurd to be probable and hence, can’t be accepted on the face value since fabrications/manipulations are at galore.
After hearing Advocate Ranjeev Dubey for the accused persons whereas Public Prosecutor Koushal Kotwal for the UT, the court observed, “there are two incidents clubbed in one. The first incident is alleged to have taken place on 2nd of October 2018, when, it is alleged that accused Ram Paul entered into the house of the informant/victim and finding her alone tried to commit rape upon her. The second incident is alleged to have taken place on 30th of October i.e. four weeks after the first incident, when all the four accused persons are alleged to have entered into the house of the informant and assaulted on her”.
“It sounds very strange that a simple brawl is reported immediately to police and sought to be investigated but the graver offences were brushed aside simply by calling on and sharing with the wife of accused who too has not been questioned during investigation to ascertain the truth”, the court said, adding “such an incident wouldn’t have been dealt so lightly by the husband of the victim who stayed away from his house most of the time being a driver by profession being fully conscious of the fact that his wife stayed alone most of the time and if not dealt appropriately, it could happen again at any time, still he chose not to lodge the report with police being”.
Court further observed, “the legal position is thus, being well settled, framing of the charges against the accused persons is not an idle formality but the first important step which not only marks the beginning but also defines the broader contours of the trial and court has the onerous responsibility of sifting and weighing the material for that limited purpose placed before it by the investigating officer which is collected by him during the course of investigation”.
“There has to be some material to show prima facie the involvement of accused persons or at least to give rise to a grave suspicion zeroing down at them justifying the framing of charges and putting them to trial”, the court said. Accordingly, court discharged the accused Ram Paul Sharma, son of Badrinath, Sunny Sharma, Munish Sharma and Sahil Sharma, all sons of Ram Paul of Phangyal Udhampur.
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