Aligarh: 22 years on, teen cleared of rape charges by Juvenile Justice Board

AGRA: A 16-year-old boy who faced trial for 22 years was cleared of rape charges by the Juvenile Justice Board in Aligarh on Thursday.
Apprehended in 2000, the boy was charged with raping a minor girl of his village and was sent to juvenile home.
He was subsequently granted bail but continued to face trial before the board.
The boy (name withheld as he was held as a minor), 38 years old now, said, “Finally, I am free from the tag of being a rapist.I was accused of a crime which I never committed. Facing the stigma till the final order of the court was humiliating for me and my family.” He said he was dragged in the case because of a land dispute between two parties.
JJB principal magistrate Naresh Kumar Diwakar and members Sadhna Gupta and Prashant Singh Raghav stated in their order that the prosecution had failed to prove that the accused had committed the rape, therefore the court acquits him.
Advocate GC Sinha and KK Gautam, the boy’s lawyers, said that the FIR was registered against their client and his friend on August 26, 2000 at Atrauli police station for allegedly raping a minor girl, who had gone to the field in the morning.
The FIR stated that the minor boy raped the girl while his friend was monitoring the movement of people around. Sinha said that the police filed the chargesheet against the duo but the boy’s friend was acquitted by the session court on the basis of a compromise he reached with the victim’s party.
However, the victim, her father and uncle had recorded their statements against the minor boy. Later, the court found contradictions in the victim and her father’s statement and considered this point while acquitting him.