Woman faces action for rape frame-up
NEW DELHI: In an unprecedented verdict, the Delhi High Court has initiated criminal proceedings against a woman for making false allegations of gang rape against two Delhi-based doctors.
“A false accusation of rape may be as damning to an accused as to a victim of rape,” a bench of Justice GS Sistani and Justice AK Chawla said, noting that such cases cannot be “taken lightly”.
“The accused may be shunned in the society and by his own family, spouse and children for no fault of his own only because one woman has levelled false allegations of rape in pursuance of her evil design,” the bench remarked.
The woman had alleged that the two doctors gang-raped her at Lajpat Nagar in January 2014. She used to work in their clinic as administrative assistant (field) but her service was terminated in 2013. She alleged that both the doctors called her on the pretext of giving her job and raped her.
Advocate Giriraj Subramanium, who had represented both the doctors, said that one accused is a famous pediatrician who runs a charitable centre for micro nutrients studies for public health and the other doctor is an administrator in the centre.
The HC said the woman’s testimony“fails the test of a sterling witness”. The court pointed out various inconsistencies in her statement such as the timing of her arrival in the office on the day of the incident.
The high court noted that solely relying on the testimony of the woman was a “dangerous proposition” as other witnesses such as the office caretaker had deposed that she never came to the office that day.
The bench said the behaviour of the woman was “highly doubtful” as she did not disclose the incident to anyone including her husband but chose to wait 22 days to narrate the incident to her brother in-law, whose taxi service was previously terminated by the same office.
“It is highly improbable that the rape was committed inside a running office which has six cabins with transparent walls,” the bench said, adding that, “the medical evidence also shows no trauma, bite marks and abrasions on her person”.
Noted that both the woman and her brother-in-law had a motive to extract revenge against the two doctors, the bench said, “There was a conscious and deliberate effort to misuse the process of law to initiate false proceedings”.
While upholding the trial court verdict which had acquitted the two doctors, the bench directed that proceedings against the woman and her brother-in-law should be initiated for giving false evidence in court.