Mumbai: Man acquitted in rape case after POCSO court finds he was falsely implicated

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A 35-year-old man, booked for sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl, was acquitted by a special court under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act after the court learned that the minor girl falsely implicated the accused at the behest of a friend, a money-lender, who wanted to recover his money from the accused.

According to a report in Times of India, the accused spent a month in jail before he was granted bail. As per the FIR, the incident took place on July 10, 2015, when the victim and her friend visited an under-construction building, where the accused and her friend had purchased flats.

The minor said that she was on her way down after seeing a flat on the 11th floor when she met the accused. In her complaint, the minor claimed that the accused caught her right hand and waist when she went with him to see his flat. He told her to accompany him to a room on another floor, but she refused and freed herself before running away, states the FIR.

However, during cross-examination, the victim said that her friend demanded money from the accused, which led to a fight. The two even pushed her during a scuffle. The minor told cops that her friend threatened to take action if the accused failed to pay.