Noida: A Pocso court has acquitted a 68-year-old man after he spent a decade in jail, saying the case was riddled with contradictions and driven by malice.In an order on Friday, additional sessions judge Vikas Nagar held that the prosecution failed to prove even the basic foundations of the case — that the complainant was a minor, that sexual assault was established, or that the allegations were free from ulterior motive.The case began with an FIR lodged at Sector 20 police station on Aug 8, 2016, by the girl’s father, who accused two men of abducting his daughter and raping her. Police later filed a chargesheet on Nov 8, 2016, under relevant IPC sections and provisions of the Pocso Act.Charges were framed against both accused. However, one of them was found to be a juvenile during proceedings and his case was separated in 2023 and sent to the Juvenile Justice Board. The trial against the other man, originally from Bihar, continued before the special court.The prosecution examined five witnesses, including the girl, her parents, the investigating officer and the doctor who conducted the medico-legal examination. The defence produced three witnesses and argued that the accused was away attending to his ailing mother at the time of the alleged incident. It also alleged that the FIR application had been written by a man who had a long-running property dispute with the accused.That claim became central to the court’s findings. The judge noted that the complainant falsely denied any friendship with Pankaj Pandit, who had actually written the FIR application on his behalf. The defence, the court said, produced certified copies of pending cases to show that Pandit had “rivalry and disputes” with the accused, lending weight to the argument that the case was engineered.The court also found that the prosecution could not prove the girl was a minor. In the absence of any official age document, the court relied on a report of the chief medical officer, which placed her age above 18 and below 22.Medical evidence, too, did not support the prosecution. The court recorded that no spermatozoa was found in vaginal smear slides and that no medical report on record established sexual or other abuse. The doctor testified that “no definite opinion about sexual assault can be given”, even though the examination was conducted within a day of the alleged incident.Holding that the witness statements contained “grave inconsistencies” and that the FIR appeared to be false and malicious, the court acquitted the man of all charges. It asked him to furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and two sureties of the same amount within seven days for his release from jail.
