Three years after a 15-year-old girl delivered a baby in her school washroom, the 23-year-old accused walked free on Wednesday. Pointing to a string of police lapses and investigative shortcomings, and a DNA report that ruled out the possibility of him being the biological father of the child, a special fast-track POCSO court in Panchkula acquitted the man, giving him the benefit of doubt.

The court of the additional sessions judge held that the prosecution had failed to prove the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt. “The prosecution evidence suffers from material contradictions and lacks the requisite cogency and credibility to sustain conviction,” the court said, while extending the benefit of doubt to the accused but said that it did not by itself rule out a separate sexual offence.

The victim was established as a minor on the basis of her school records which showed her date of birth as January 1, 2008, which by itself made her consent immaterial.

Lapses in investigation

The girl had delivered the baby in the school washroom in May 2023. The court noted that the police had failed to obtain the victim’s school attendance record, or get her principal, teacher, peon or other school staff to join the probe. Further, no call detail records, customer application forms or mobile tower-location records of the accused’s phone were collected to verify his alleged contact with the girl or his presence near her residence.

Contradictions in victim’s statements

The court noted that the girl’s earlier accounts – in her complaint to legal aid counsel, medical history, police statement and first statement before a magistrate – consistently described the relationship with the 23-year-old as consensual and made no mention of force, threats or a video.

In her second statement, the girl alleged that a juvenile living in the neighbourhood had been sexually assaulting her for two to three years after stating that he possessed some objectionable photographs and videos of her. She, however, admitted that she had never seen any video. The court also observed the police’s failure to collect evidence related to this.

No independent witnesses during arrest

It was further observed that no independent witness was joined during the arrest of the accused. The arrest memo did not mention the grounds of arrest. No daily diary entry report was made at the railway police station, and the statements of the accused’s parents, with whom he was found travelling, were not recorded. Advocate Deepanshu Bansal was representing the accused.