New Delhi:
A Delhi court has granted liberty to a man to sue a woman for damages on account of frame-up after acquitting him of the charge of raping her and observing that he suffered humiliation and trauma besides the expenses of litigation.
The court said the man's plight may continue as his implication may have caused an uproar in the society but his acquittal may not even be noticed.
"It cannot be ignored that the accused, due to this case which has ultimately ended in his acquittal, may have suffered humiliation, trauma, distress and misery besides the expenses of the litigation...
"He will continue to suffer the stigma of being a rape case accused. It may not be possible to restore his dignity and honour nor compensate him for the humiliation, misery, distress and monetary loss. However, his acquittal may give him some solace. He may also file any case for damages against the prosecutrix, if advised," Additional Sessions Judge Nivedita Anil Sharma said.
The court's observations came while acquitting a resident of Mukherjee Nagar in New Delhi of the charge of repeatedly raping and criminally intimidating a woman who was working in his organisation on the false promise of marriage.
It freed the man after the woman turned hostile and said that she was not raped by him and physical relations between them were consensual.
The woman lodged an FIR at Hari Nagar Police Station here alleging that in February 2013, the man gave her a cold drink laced with sedatives and thereafter, raped her.
She alleged that the man continued to raped her at several places from February to August 2013, on the false promise to marry her and threatened to publish her obscene videos.
The woman, however, turned hostile and changed her statement in the court deposing that the physical relations between her and the man were with her consent. She said she had lodged the complaint at the instance of some well-wishers and sought acquittal of the man saying he had not done anything wrong with her.
"... I am of the considered view that the case of the prosecution cannot be treated as trustworthy and reliable as the prosecutrix has retracted and resiled from her earlier statement," the judge said.
The court said, "There was no material on record to show that the man had intoxicated the woman, raped, beaten her, prepared her obscene videos, threatened to publish her video and raped her under the false promise to marry."