New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has ordered for initiation of criminal proceedings against a woman for levelling false charge of gangrape against two Delhi-based doctors.
Upholding a trial court verdict that acquitted the two doctors, a division bench of Justice G.S. Sistani and Justice A.K. Chawla directed that proceeding against the woman and her brother-in-law should be started for giving false evidence in court.
The bench said it was clear that "courts must not be blind to the rights of the accused".
"A false accusation of rape may be as damning to an accused as to a victim of rape. The accused may be shunned by society and by his own family, spouse, and children for no fault of his own only because one woman has levelled false allegations of rape in pursuance of her evil design. The present case seems to be no different when the sole purpose of the complainant and her brother-in-law seems to be to exact revenge against the respondents (doctors)," the High Court said.
In January 2014, the woman had accused the two doctors of gangrape at their micronutrient research centre at Lajpat Nagar where she used to work as an Administrative Assistant (Field).
In March 2013, her services were terminated. She alleged that both called her on the pretext of giving her back the job and committed the crime.
The High Court said there were various inconsistencies in her statement, such as timing of her arrival at the office on the day of the incident.
Solely relying on the testimony of the woman was a dangerous proposition as other witnesses such as the office caretaker had deposed that she never came to the office on that day, the bench noted.
The behaviour of the woman was "highly doubtful" as she did not disclose the incident to anyone, including her husband, but chose to wait 22 days to narrate the incident to her brother in-law, whose taxi service was previously terminated by the same office, the court said.
"It has been shown that the prosecutrix was a disgruntled employee and the car rental service of her brother-in-law had been terminated, and hence both had a motive to level false allegations. It seems the whole criminal machinery was put in force just to extact revenge on the respondents," the court added.
It added: "We may add that though ordinarily no woman would falsely implicate someone in a rape case owing to social stigma attached to the offence, at the same time, this court has come across cases where false charges of rape were levelled when someone tutored a gullible daughter or a disgruntled employee levelled false allegations to seek vengeance."
The High Court dismissed a police plea that challenged a trial court dated September 30, 2016, wherein the doctors were acquitted.
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