PANAJI
Goa Children's Court has acquitted a resident of Benaulim, Remedios alias Remet Bibo Fernandes, in a 2015 case of raping a four year-old girl.
"There arises a reasonable doubt about the actual occurrence of the incident benefit of doubt goes to the accused," the judgment states acquitting Fernandes (43) of all charges.
Fernandes, a fisherman, was chargesheeted by Colva Police Station under Section 376 (2) (i) of IPC, Section 8 (2) of Goa Children's Act, 2003 and Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 for committing rape on a four year-old girl on October 18, 2015 at Benaulim.
Prosecution examined 15 witnesses in support of its case. Defence counsel Anoop Kudtadkar argued for the accused.
During the course of the trial, at the stage of recording her statement in the Court, the victim was shown the accused person for identification. Her behaviour changed considerably and she did not answer any more questions about the offence thereafter. At this stage, the prosecution had insisted that this change in the victim's behavior is reflective of the guilt of the accused.
However, the court held that merely on the basis of the change in behavior of the victim upon seeing the accused in the Court, no direct inference can be drawn in favour of the prosecution against the accused, especially in view of the inconsistent testimonies of the close relatives of the victim, who were present in the house at the time of the alleged incident and soon thereafter.
In addition to this, Central Forensic Science Laboratpry, Hyderabad examined the clothes of the victim and the accused, medical samples and the bedsheet and in its report, CFSL declared that no blood or bodily fluids were detected on the clothes.
