A timber merchant in Talod town of Sabarkantha district has been absolved of rape charges, albeit 21 years after he was implicated in the case. In 1988, Kantiji Thakor, the merchant was convicted by a court in Talod for raping his business partner’s wife. He challenged this conviction in the Gujarat High Court. But, the High Court acquitted him last week observing that the lower court had committed legal error in punishing him.
Thakor was caught in a compromising position with his partner’s wife on the day of Holi. His partner dragged him to a police station and lodged a complaint of rape against him. Police carried out investigation in the case and a court in Talod sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment for seven years.
However, Thakor filed an appeal in the High Court immediately.
But, when Justice Akil Kureshi heard the case recently, he pointed out that the only concrete evidence that the police could produce was Thakor’s motorcycle parked near the victim’s house, which is not reason enough to consider the man guilty of committing rape.
Observing that the victim woman had made "many self-contradictory statements", the court also noted some of her frivolous narration. First, she had said that people outside her house could not hear her cries due to the noise of the fan in her house. Later, she had also claimed that on hearing her shrieks, her children, husband and other people rushed inside.
The court also blamed the investigating agencies for further complicating the matter.
"The investigating officer also stated that there were three persons present at the place of the incident whose statements he had recorded. However, such witnesses were not examined before the court," Justice Kureshi said in his judgment. He also noted that the versions of the victim and her husband do not seem reliable.