New Delhi: Delhi High Court has upheld the acquittal of a man accused of kidnapping and raping a 16-year-old girl, holding that a horoscope and a vaccination card — relied on to claim the survivor was a minor — cannot be treated as proof of age.A bench of Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Ravinder Dudeja said the survivor’s age is “the prime question” in cases under the Pocso Act, but the prosecution failed to produce any authentic document establishing her date of birth. The court noted that the girl’s parents could neither state her exact birth date nor furnish an original birth certificate.The girl’s father testified that her horoscope, prepared at birth, had been used for school admission. “Admittedly, janam patri cannot be considered proof of date of birth. Therefore, the age recorded in the school record based on the horoscope cannot also be considered as proof of age,” the HC observed. It added that the date of birth recorded in a Jachcha Bachcha Raksha Card or vaccination card was also not legitimate proof.In the absence of reliable documents, the court concluded that the prosecution had not proved the girl was a minor, making the Pocso Act inapplicable.According to the prosecution, the girl was kidnapped in Jan 2013 and later traced to Amritsar. She rang home from a mobile phone, which led to the tracing of her location and the consequent arrest of the accused from Amritsar railway station. The man claimed false implication and defended the trial court’s July 2019 verdict acquitting him.The HC said the girl’s testimony lacked credibility and was marked by material contradictions, improvements and inconsistencies regarding how she left home, her prior contact with the accused and the alleged incident.
