Converting an attempt to rape case into a molestation case, a Delhi court has sentenced a man to six years imprisonment for abducting and assaulting an Assamese woman.
The Kapashera police in southwest Delhi had charge-sheeted Kailash Singh for abduction and attempt to rape on information provided by a woman who had helped the victim to change her torn clothes after the assault.
Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat converted the case into abduction and molestation after the victim said in her evidence that she had thwarted the accused’s attempt to rape her.
The accused, along with co-accused Jairam, had abducted the victim from near the Bijwasan Railway station in July. The police could not arrest the other accused.
The victim had come from Assam to earn a livelihood and is staying here with an Non Government Organisation. The court also pulled up the investigating officer of the case for not recording the statement of the woman who had helped the victim and for making no inquiry about the NGO.
The court rejected the defence counsel’s argument for acquittal of the accused, saying that the negligence in the investigation could not accrue benefit to the accused.
The court convicted the accused on the basis of evidence by the victim who stood by her statement to the police in later statements before a Metropolitan Magistrate and finally in the trial of the case.