Mumbai Court Acquits Man In Rape Case After AIDS-Positive Complainant Goes Missing During Trial

Mumbai: A Mumbai Sessions Court has acquitted a man who had been charged with raping a woman living with AIDS, after the complainant could not be located and failed to appear to give evidence during the proceedings. The court ruled that without her testimony, the prosecution was unable to establish the charges against the accused.

The case is linked to November 2018, when a 35-year-old woman alleged that she was drugged and sexually assaulted by a man who approached her at a bus stop in Vikhroli. According to the prosecution, the woman had left her home following a dispute with her husband and was found alone at the stop. The accused reportedly offered to help her and invited her onto his bus, promising to drop her at her desired location. 

The police confirmed that the woman was discovered the following day, sitting inside a bus, at which point she recounted the incident to the cops. She stated to the police that she was her husband’s second wife and that both of them were living with AIDS. She added that her husband had two children from his first marriage after his first wife had passed away.

What Were Complainant’s Allegations

In her statement to the police, the woman claimed that the accused drove the bus around 0.5 km from the bus stop before parking by the roadside. As per her statement, the man allegedly asked her to stay inside while he went to buy food and after the accused returned, he allegedly gave her a soft drink which had been laced with an intoxicating substance. 

The woman alleged that she was raped after losing consciousness and that, once she came to, she contacted a police helpline and was subsequently rescued from the vehicle.

The man was arrested in 2023, 5 years after the alleged offence, and a chargesheet was filed. Throughout the trial, the accused denied every allegation made against him. 

On the other hand, the police informed the court that despite multiple attempts, they had been unable to trace the complainant. The police also tried to ascertain whether she had died, but found no records or evidence to confirm her death.

Testimony Was ‘Main and Material’ Evidence: Court

Special Judge Surekha Sinha, while delivering the verdict, stressed that the complainant’s account was the most crucial element of the prosecution’s case, given that the alleged incident took place when she was alone with the accused on the bus. “Therefore, her evidence is main and material. She was suffering from AIDS, but no medical reports were filed on record. Moreover, police have conducted the search and from time to time filed various reports on record, but she was not found,” the judge observed.

The court also noted major procedural gaps in the investigation, as the accused was a stranger to the complainant, even though no test identification parade had been carried out. “The accused was an unknown person to the complainant, yet no test identification parade was conducted. It was necessary for the complainant to identify the accused before the court. In the absence of her testimony, however, the contents of the complaint and the FIR remain unproved. Moreover, the identity of the accused as the alleged perpetrator has also not been established,” the order stated.

Judge Sinha held that without the woman’s evidence, there was nothing on record to prove that the accused had raped her, administered any intoxicating substance, or wrongfully confined her in the bus. The court added that it saw little purpose in examining the medical evidence in the absence of her testimony, concluding that there was no satisfactory material to prove the offences.

The accused was accordingly acquitted and the court directed his release from prison.