Pascal Mazurier, accused of raping his daughter, has been acquitted by Bengaluru court.
Pascal Mazurier, a former French diplomat accused of raping his infant daughter, was let off by a court in Bengaluru today for lack of evidence.
"I am very emotional today, it is difficult to talk...it was a long battle and exhausting," Mr Mazurier, 44, told reporters, adding, "Not too many people supported me; I was not in my country, I was alone and my family visited once."
Mr Mazurier was a Consular Attache to the French Consulate when he was arrested in June 2012, days after his Kerala-born wife Suja Jones accused him of raping their three-year-old daughter - one of three children. Married to the diplomat since 2001, she also submitted a medical report that she said confirmed that the little girl had been raped.
Amid public outrage, the police arrested the diplomat after confirming that he didn't have diplomatic immunity. He was in jail for four months before being released on bail. The court allowed him to visit his two other children for an hour, but not the daughter he was accused of raping.
In court, Mr Mazurier's team argued that the rape allegations were not substantiated by forensic tests and his DNA sample did not match with the semen found on the child's clothes. "We all along said it was a framed case. But the courts couldn't have said that without the trial, all evidence points towards Pascal not being involved in any of this," said his lawyer Mahesh.
Suja Jones, who was questioned for over five hours on her charge against her husband, said she was deeply disappointed at this verdict after five years. "We will challenge this judgement," she told reporters, stressing that she would do everything to "protect my children from my husband".
"It's the victory of clout and money power. The forensic evidence and investigation has been botched up either by the police or forensic team," Ms Jones.
She had in the past written to the Ambassador of France in India, alleging that she suspected her husband had been abusing their daughter since 2010.