New Delhi: Four persons have been acquitted by a Delhi court in a 2008 case of abduction and gangrape of a Turkmenistan national, who was allegedly forced into sex work, on the ground that the charges could not be proved due to non- examination of the woman.
Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain, who absolved the four accused including a woman of the offences of gangrape, kidnapping, cheating and criminal conspiracy under the IPC and under the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, also noted that the woman knew them as they all were garment traders.
Noting that the woman left for her country in 2009 after which her presence during the proceedings could not be secured, the court said, “Since the prosecutrix (woman) has not been examined, the allegations made by her in the complaint could not be proved.”
“There is no material to show that the accused abducted the prosecutrix with intent to cause her to be secretly and wrongfully confined and she would be compelled, forced and seduced to illicit intercourse or that they put her in the fear of death or grievous hurt, forced her to illicit intercourse against her wishes,” the court said.
It also rejected the claim in the complaint that the accused were running flesh trade in a very organised and professional manner by bringing girls from Russia, Uzbekistan and Central Asian countries who were allured on pretext of providing fashion and modelling jobs here.
“There is no iota of evidence that the accused had organised the flesh trade, procured the girls from different countries and dragged them into prostitution. The accused persons in their statement have stated that they were in the business of trading of garments. They knew the prosecutrix from before. She was also in trading of garments,” it said.
According to prosecution, the woman came to India in June 2008 in search for job and was received by the accused persons at the airport after which her travel documents were allegedly forcibly taken away.
She had claimed in her complaint through an email to police that she was forced to work as a prostitute and was threatened that he would be killed if she refused to work.
She was starved, abused and beaten up, the complaint lodged few months later on December 17, 2008 said, adding once the girls reached India, their travel documents were taken away by the accused and since they did not know the language and were helpless, they were forced into flesh trade.