A Mangaluru court has acquitted a person charged with raping a Christian woman by taking her to several places and attempting to convert her to Islam, while taking exception to the victim’s family’s abuse of the process of police machinery to get the complaint investigated.
The second Additional District and Sessions Judge, Mangaluru, V.N. Jagadeesh, on March 16, acquitted, Hidayath alias Abdulla, 42, a resident of Machi village of Bantwal taluk, of offences under Sections 143, 120(B), 366, 420, 368 read with Section 149 of Indian Penal Code.
The judge said that by looking into the above evidence, it was clear that it was a case of misuse of police machinery by the complainant family. No doubt accused no. 1 Hidayath was absconding for long time but the evidence placed on record is not sufficient to prove his guilt.
The victim’s father lodged a missing complaint with the Bantwal Town Police Station on June 14, 2007, that his daughter had not returned home since she left the house for work in a beauty parlour on the morning of June 7, 2007. On July 18, 2007, he lodged another complaint accusing Hidayath of abducting his daughter and taking her to Mangaluru and then confining her to a room in Mumbai on the promise of marriage. Further, she was brought to Manjeshwara and Hosangadi and kept in a room where attempt was made to convert her religion, the victim’s father alleged.
