Supreme Court Overturns Life Sentence in Rajasthan Rape Case, Cites Serious Errors in Evidence

The Supreme Court stated, "A criminal trial is not merely a confrontation between the prosecution and the accused. The court's primary responsibility is to ascertain the truth and ensure that a guilty verdict is based on legally valid and reliable evidence.

The court is not expected to remain a mute spectator when evidence directly relevant to the accused's guilt or innocence is ignored. The court's role is not limited to merely recording the evidence presented by the parties; it must ensure that evidence crucial to a just verdict is properly brought on record."

The Supreme Court observed that the prosecution's case thus suffers from serious deficiencies in the accused's identification. Furthermore, there are stark contradictions between the medical evidence regarding the age of the injuries and the alleged time of the incident as stated in the FIR and the statements of prosecution witnesses.

The Supreme Court noted that the individual has been in custody for over nine years. The Rajasthan High Court upheld the man's conviction in this case and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The girl's father filed an FIR at the Kekri police station in Ajmer on December 7, 2016, alleging that his wife and two children (an 11-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter) had gone to a relative's house two days earlier.

His wife called him at his workplace and asked if his daughter was with him. When he replied "no," his wife said she was missing.

The complainant immediately returned to the village and began searching for his daughter. Some time later, two men arrived at his house with the girl. At that time, his wife noticed that the girl was injured. The girl stated that she had been sexually assaulted.

The accused was arrested on February 5, 2017. He argued in the Supreme Court that he had been falsely implicated in the case at the behest of the local MLA, with whom he had a rivalry.