Delhi court acquits man accused of indulging in unnatural sex

A Delhi court has expressed its displeasure over the failure of the police to verify address of a complainant in a criminal case relating to unnatural sex, leading to the wastage of judicial time and prompting it to acquit the accused.

"The entire machinery of the state and the time spent in reaching at this stage of trial seems to have wasted on account of the fact that the complainant himself is not traceable as no verification of his address was undertaken at the time of filing of charge sheet," chief metropolitan magistrate Kaveri Baweja said.

The court said the police should verify the address of a complainant at the time of filing the charge sheet in order to
help the prosecution to record his statement during the trial.

"I am of the view that it was desirable at the time of filing of charge sheet that the native address of the complainant should be verified by the Investigating Officer so as to ensure his presence during the course of trial," CMM Baweja said.

The court made these observations while acquitting Chaman
Lal of the charges under Section 377 (unnatural sex) and 506
(criminal intimidation) of the IPC.

The court absolved the accused after a report was filed before it stating that the summons issued seeking presence of complainant Deepak Kumar were returned as the address
mentioned on the records was non-existent.

"The whereabouts of the complainant who is the star witness of the prosecution were not verified properly by the Investigating Officer at the time of filing the charge sheet," the court said.

It also noted the Delhi address of the complainant was temporary as he was a rickshaw-puller and used to spend the night on the footpath. 

The court directed that its order should be forwarded to the deputy commissioner of police (Central) who should ensure that the investigating officer now onwards verifies addresses of the complainants in order to avoid such a situation.     

A case was registered against Lal with DBG road police station on June 10, 2002 on the complaint of Kumar alleging that he was taken to a secluded place near Tibia College and was sexually assaulted by the accused.

The police filed the charge sheet in the matter on January 30, 2003 mentioning Kumar's permanent address at Kalkapur village in Madhubani district in Bihar but it was later turned out to be non-existent.