6 accused in TISS gangrape case acquitted: Bombay HC

The Bombay High Court today upheld acquittal of the six students charged with gang-raping a US national by dismissing the appeal filed by Maharashtra government challenging the earlier verdict of a trial court.

A division bench of Justices N H Patil and Mridula Bhatkar, while dismissing the appeal, observed that there is no evidence to prove sexual intercourse by force. 

"We are aware that the victim is a foreign national. Such cases need to be handled with caution and sensitivity. However, no evidence of rape or sexual intercourse has come on the record," Justice Bhatkar remarked.

The court further said that in case of absence of direct evidence in the form of the victim stating that she had been raped, there has to be some indirect evidence like medical evidence to prove the offense.

"But in this case neither the girl is saying directly that she was raped nor is there any evidence to prove so. Even the medical tests are negative," the bench said.

On April 12, 2009, six friends--Vinamra Soni, Harshvardharn Yadav, Jaskaran Singh Bullar, Anish Borkatki, Dev Colabawala and Kundanraj Bodgohai, allegedly took the 23-year-old victim, a student of prestigious Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), to the house of one of the accused and took turns to rape her. 

According to the prosecution, the victim came in contact with the accused, who were students from different colleges of the city, through a common friend Annie Brown. On the night of the incident, all of them had gone to a suburban bar in Deonar to celebrate Brown's birthday.

The victim who wanted to go to Andheri was persuaded by the accused to accompany them to the residence of Kundanraj which she obliged. It was at the residence of Kundanraj that they allegedly raped her on the night of April 12, 2009.

A trial court in October last acquitted all the accused for want of evidence following which the state government filed an appeal before the High Court.

The high court while dismissing the state's appeal today observed that there was no illegality in the trial court's order acquitting the six.