Victim withdraws appeal against rape accused’s father

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: An alleged rape victim has withdrawn the appeal she had filed against the alleged rapist and her father after the death of the main accused while the case was pending. The victim’s brother had filed the complaint in 2014 against the main accused and his father alleging that they had committed rape against his sister.

In 2016, the trial court in Chitradurga acquitted both the accused of all charges. The State did not file an appeal against the acquittal but the victim approached the HC with an appeal. She based her grounds on the evidence of 12 witnesses and ten exhibits.

“In this appeal, she has prayed to set-aside the acquittal judgment rendered by the trial court and thereby to convict the accused for the aforesaid offences charged against them,” the Division Bench of Justice K Somashekar and Justice CM Joshi noted. Though the appeal was filed in 2016, it was only recently that the case was disposed of by the division bench. During the meantime, the main accused had died.

“Respondent No 1, who is arraigned as Accused No 1, has died during the pendency of this appeal. Consequently, the appeal against Accused No 1 stands abated as according to Section 394(2) of the CrPC. Hence, the appeal is restricted only to Respondent No 2, who is none other than the father of the first accused,” the HC said. While the HC considered the evidence, the advocate for the alleged victim informed t h e court that she intends to withdraw the case against the second accused.

“The learned counsel for the appellant/ complainant in this matter during the course of diction fairly submits that she seeks to withdraw the appeal as against Respondent No 2. Further, she files a memo in this regard seeking for withdrawal of the appeal as against Respondent No 2. The memo filed by the learned counsel is taken on record,” the HC noted.

The HC dismissed the appeal as withdrawn but also said: “Even on merits, we find no perversity or infirmity or absurdity in the impugned judgment rendered by the trial court. Even on this premise, the appeal requires to be rejected as being devoid of merit.”