By Astha Bhumish Shah 

A Court in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi has acquitted two men accused of ‘love jihad’ on allegations of inducing and kidnapping a 14-year-old minor Hindu girl on the pretext of marriage. The case arose after the father of the victim alleged that the two accused persons, were trying to induce and kidnap his minor daughter on the pretext of marriage. However, their plan did not succeed as they were discovered and had to flee, leaving the girl behind. The girl was rescued by another; however he too had not seen the faces of the accused on the date of the alleged incident. The two accused persons were booked under Sections 363 and 366A (procuration of minor girl) of the IPC and for offences under POCSO Act. It was noted by the Court that the victim-girl had not named the accused persons in any of her statements and had also not made any statement about such an incident. Additionally, as per the statement of victim, none of the accused persons had tried to kidnap her and it was the police officers who had coached her to give statements against the accused. Considering that there was no eye-witness to the incident and all the prosecution witnesses had proceeded on the information conveyed to them by person who rescued the victim, the Court was of the view that the prosecution was unable to prove the case against accused persons beyond reasonable doubt. Further, on the charges under POCSO Act, the Court noted that the prosecution was unable to prove that the accused persons had done any act or maintained any physical contact with the victim-girl with sexual intent. (State v. Uvaid Khan and another – Criminal Case No.5 / 2023) 

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