STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: In a significant judgment the Chief Judicial Magistrate Jammu (Designated Juvenile Court) Sunit Gupta acquitted a juvenile Narvinder Nischal son of Anil Kumar Nischal resident of Migrant Camp Mishriwala, Jammu from the charges of kidnapping and rape of a 15 years school going girl as the prosecution could not be able to bring home the guilt of the juvenile beyond all reasonable doubts.
The designated court headed by Sunit Gupta after hearing Chief Prosecuting Officer with Sr. P.O. for the State whereas Advocate Puran Chand Bhagat appearing for the juvenile observed that court is conscious of the fact that it is dealing with the offence of kidnapping a minor girl and alleged developing of physical sexual relationship with her by the accused and in such like cases the consent of the minor girl does not matter. But at the same time we should also not forget about the fact that the accused who is put to trial in the present case was also declared as ‘Juvenile’ under the age of 16 years (as it was applicable on that day) by the Principal Sessions Judge, Jammu. Therefore the court cannot give undue weightage to the statement of prosecutrix who has subsequently became hostile towards the accused at the time of deposing her statement before the Court. Court also observed that we should also bear in mind that at the time of deposing the statement by the prosecutrix before this Court she had attained the age of maturity i.e. 23 years of age and had also joined the profession of law as an Advocate and by that time the accused in the present case had also entered into a marital knot with one Meenu (a defence witness). Therefore the hostile attitude of the prosecutrix for deposing her statement against the accused is well understandable.
Advocate Puran Chand Bhagat appearing for the juvenile submitted that from the circumstances narrated by the prosecutrix one could easily smell out that she had accompanied the accused to different places out of her own free will and consent and there was no element of force on the part of accused. Advocate After referring to the entire evidence on the file particularly the statement of the prosecutrix the designated Juvenile Court headed by CJM Jammu Sunit Gupta dismissed the police challan and acquitted the juvenile of the charges leveled against him.
