Kalyan court acquits 68-year-old in molestation case after 14-year trial delay

In yet another case highlighting prosecution lapses a 68yearold man accused of molesting his female employee has been acquitted recently by a court in Kalyan over 14 years after the case was registeredThe prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt with the glaring fact that apart from the investigating police officer not a single prosecution witness including the complainant testified before the court during the trialWith no direct or supporting evidence produced to substantiate the allegations the accused received the benefit of doubt and was acquittedThe allegationsAccording to the prosecution case the complainant worked as a compounder at the accusedrsquos clinic The allegations related to three incidents on April 28 May 7 and May 11 2012 all during the afternoonAdvocate Majeed Memon PicBy Special ArrangementApril 28 After she complained about receiving Rs 100 less than her salary the accused allegedly put his arm around her waist and tried to kiss her She allegedly resisted and leftMay 7 He allegedly called her to his residence on the pretext of storing belongings there and again tried to embrace and kiss her She allegedly fledMay 11 He allegedly called her to the clinic when no patients were present touched her chest kissed her and demanded sexual favoursThe complaintThe complainant approached the Mahatma Phule police station on May 13 2012 alleging that the accused had repeatedly violated her modesty and caused her mental distress Police registered a case and handed the investigation to Assistant Police Inspector BR KumbharInvestigation and trialDuring the investigation police conducted a spot inspection and prepared a sceneofoffence panchnama Statements of witnesses were also recorded The prosecution subsequently filed a charge sheet against the accused During his trial the accused denied the allegations and claimed that he had been falsely implicated in the caseOne witness examinedThe prosecutionrsquos case rested solely on the testimony of investigating officer Kumbhar who detailed the investigation spot panchnama and charge sheet Neither the complainant nor any other prosecution witness testified No defence or court witnesses were examined either During crossexamination Kumbhar admitted there were other shops near the alleged scene and that other witnesses had learnt about the incident from the complainantCourtrsquos findingsWith no independent oral documentary or circumstantial evidence the court held that the sole investigating officerrsquos testimony was insufficient to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt On the basis of this the court ordered the acquittal of the accusedExpert SpeakSenior advocate Majeed Memon said ldquoThis is yet another glaring instance of failure of justice on account of inordinate delay in disposing of a criminal case Invariably in all criminal cases in our country the witnesses are normally not very sophisticated people most of them are rustic and uneducated and at times do not even have permanent addresses If a criminal trial begins over a decade after the incident the witnesses including scientific evidence become unavailable or their witness memory fades away Even other pieces of evidence tend to evaporate and therefore if cases have to be judged decades after the date of the crime the cases are bound to fail The consequent result is that both the victim and society are losers and overall conviction rates are dispiriting It is high time that steps were taken by the administration to ensure that the constitutional assurance of expeditious justice is honoured practicallyrdquo