Rajendranagar Court Acquits Man of Rape Despite DNA Match as Family Turns Hostile

A POCSO court in Rajendranagar, Rangareddy district, recently acquitted a man of rape and abetment of a minor girl's suicide despite DNA evidence proving he was the biological father of her foetus. Special Judge T Srinivas delivered the verdict after the deceased victim's family turned hostile during the trial.

The accused, Sampangi Vijay Kumar, and the victim were residents of Shamshabad. According to the prosecution, Vijay allegedly lured the minor with a promise of marriage and had sexual intercourse with her on several occasions. When the victim became pregnant in February 2020, Vijay married another woman.

The victim was seven months pregnant when she and her family approached Vijay to request marriage, but he refused. She later died by suicide by jumping into Himayatsagar lake.

Following a postmortem, the foetus and other body samples were preserved for DNA analysis. Based on a statement from the victim's mother, the police altered the case from Section 174 of the CrPC to include charges under Sections 305, 376(2)(n), 417, and 420 of the Indian Penal Code, alongside relevant sections of the POCSO Act. The victim's SSC marks memo indicated she was 17 years and 11 months old.

The Forensic Science Laboratory confirmed through DNA profiling that Vijay was the biological father of the foetus. However, during the trial, the victim's mother, sister, uncle, and brother all turned hostile and denied Vijay's involvement. The accused's wife also turned hostile.

Investigating officer K Ashok Chakravarthy told the court that he had filed the chargesheet after completing the investigation. During cross-examination, he admitted that the victim's certified date of birth certificate was not collected. While attested copies of the SSC marks memo and bonafide certificate were collected, they were not exhibited during the trial.

Special Judge T Srinivas observed that the prosecution's case was critically weakened by the hostile witnesses. The court noted that while DNA profiling linked the accused to the foetus, the lack of a certified date of birth for the POCSO charge, material contradictions regarding the discovery of the body, and the family's failure to support the abetment charges made an acquittal necessary.

The court ruled that the prosecution failed to establish the charges beyond a reasonable doubt, resulting in Vijay's acquittal on all charges.