Uttarakhand Court acquits two in alleged 'love jihad' case

A court in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi has acquitted two men accused of 'love jihad' on allegations of inducing and kidnapping a 14-year-old minor Hindu girl on the pretext of marriage [State v. Uvaid Khan and Another]..Special Judge Gurbaksh Singh noted that the victim-girl had not named the accused persons in any of her statements and had also not made any statement about such an incident.Judge Singh also highlighted that as per statement of victim, none of the accused persons had tried to kidnap her and it was the police officers who had coached her to give statements against the accused."PW2 (referring to victim-girl) does not make any statement about any incident being caused to her by the accused and the maximum she says about the accused is that she had asked the accused about the tailor and she had gone to that tailor's shop with the accused and also says that the accused were not taking me anywhere. In the cross-examination conducted by the prosecution after declaring this witness hostile, the prosecution has not been able to reveal any fact that the statement given by PW2 (victim) in the main examination was given under the influence of the accused or that PW2 is giving a false statement. ...Regarding the statement under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code, PW2 (victim) says that before recording the statement, the police had explained to her what she had to say and regarding the site map, she says that this paper was not prepared in front of her," the Court noted.The Court also noted that one Anand, who is alleged to have rescued the girl, was not aware of the names of the accused persons as he had not seen their faces on date of incident.The case arose after the father of the victim alleged that the two accused persons, Uvaid Khan and Jitendra Saini, were trying to induce and kidnap the minor girl on the pretext of marriage. However, their plan did not succeed since Anand saw them and they had to flee leaving the girl behind.It was also alleged that the victim had informed that Uvaid had changed his name to Ankit and he and Saini were trying to kidnap her in a tempo on pretext of marriage.The two accused persons were booked under Sections 363 (kidnapping), 366A (procuration of minor girl) of the Indian Penal Code and for offences under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act)..Considering that there was no eye-witness to the incident and all the prosecution witnesses had proceeded on the information conveyed to them by Anand, the Court was of the view that prosecution has been unable to prove the case against accused persons beyond reasonable doubt.On the charges under POCSO Act, the Court noted that the prosecution was unable to prove that the accused persons had done any act or maintained any physical contact with the victim-girl with sexual intent."The prosecution on record has not brought any statement or evidence as per the definition of Section 7 read with 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act that the accused have touched the vagina, penis, anus or breasts of PW2 with sexual intent or have done any other act with sexual intent which involves physical contact without penetration," the Court noted.It, therefore, acquitted them from all charges..Special Public Prosecutor Poonam Singh appeared for the State.Advocates Haleem Beg and SP Nautiyal appeared for the accused..[Read Judgment]