Spurt in false rape cases filed by domestic help: Court

Additional Sessions Judge Nivedita Anil Sharma,who is in charge of the special fast-track court for sexual offences,said “precious time of the government agencies — police,the prosecution and the judiciary should not be wasted”.

“A recent trend is surfacing where a domestic worker is being underpaid or where she has been detained by the employer for an unusually long period or where her work is unsatisfactory that such a domestic worker has unfortunately resorted to invoke the laws relating to sexual abuse for achieving their goal,” the judge said.

She made these observations while acquitting a West Delhi resident of the charge of raping his domestic help twice and threatening to kill her if she disclosed the incident to anyone.

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The prosecution case was that in July 2012,the girl,through a placement agency,got a job as domestic help of the daughter of the accused at a monthly salary of Rs 8,000. The girl worked for two months but was paid only Rs 2,000 and was allegedly raped by the accused when she went to demand the arrears.

However,the girl testified in court that she had never told police that she was raped by the accused. The girl claimed that she had gone to police to lodge a complaint about non-payment of salary. She claimed that her employer did not pay her salary for two months.

She told court that outside the police station,she met an elderly man,who inquired about her problem and made her put her thumb impressions on some blank papers.

While acquitting the man,the court also said,“Today,a hue and cry is being raised everywhere that courts are not convicting the rape accused. It should not be ignored that the court has to confine itself to the ambit of law and the contents of the file as well as the testimonies of the witnesses and is not to be swayed by emotions or reporting in the media.”