4 min readLucknowJul 22, 2026 06:00 PM IST
Giving him the “benefit of doubt”, the Allahabad High Court Tuesday acquitted an 84-year-old man who was sentenced six months ago to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment in a child sexual abuse case. The man had been in jail since December 2021 following allegations of sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl.
Setting aside the conviction, a single-judge bench of Justice Santosh Rai observed, “The prosecution has failed to prove the charge against the appellant beyond reasonable doubt, and the finding of guilt recorded by the trial court, along with the consequent conviction under Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, cannot be sustained in law.”
The bench further said, “It is a settled principle of criminal jurisprudence that suspicion, however strong, cannot take the place of proof, and the prosecution is required to establish the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt through cogent, credible, and reliable evidence. Where two views are reasonably possible on the evidence on record, the view favourable to the accused must be adopted.”
The man had challenged a December 2025 order passed by a special court in Uttar Pradesh’s Hamirpur district, which had sentenced him to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 10,000.
The case originated on December 10, 2021, when the girl’s mother filed an FIR alleging that the accused, then 80 years old, lured her four-year-old daughter into his house while she was playing outside on December 5. The complainant alleged he engaged in obscene acts before releasing the child when she raised an alarm.
While the FIR was initially registered under charges of molestation and sections of the Pocso Act, the investigating officer later escalated the charge to penetrative sexual assault (rape) during the probe. The accused was arrested on December 28, 2021, and remained incarcerated after his bail application was rejected.
The man’s counsel, Vijay Bahadur Shivhare, told The Indian Express that the accused had spent over two-and-a-half years behind bars. With the High Court setting aside his conviction and ordering his immediate release, he is expected to walk out of jail soon.
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Key gaps in prosecution case
While the prosecution relied on the testimony of the girls’ mother, the examining doctor, and the investigating officer, the defence presented two key witnesses, the village head and the appellant’s daughter-in-law.
Both testified that between December 5 and December 10, 2021, the octogenarian was undergoing eye treatment in Chitrakoot district, nearly 150 km away from his home. The defence corroborated the explanation with hospital registration slips and outpatient records.
In its judgment, the High Court noted multiple flaws in the trial court’s order. It rejected the trial court’s finding that the five-day delay in lodging the FIR was adequately explained, noting that the prosecution’s explanations were “internally inconsistent and shifting.”
The bench noted that medical evidence was entirely neutral and contained no physical findings supporting penetrative assault. Citing Supreme Court precedents on child witnesses, Justice Rai highlighted that the testimony of a minor must be evaluated with circumspection due to the susceptibility of tutoring.
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“The cumulative effect of the unexplained delay, the absence of penetrative assault allegations in the initial report, material contradictions in the informant’s testimony, the unclarified description of the act, and an unrebutted defence of alibi supported by documentary evidence leads this court to conclude that the prosecution failed to prove the charge,” the bench held.
The High Court directed that the man be released immediately unless required in any other case and ordered that the Rs 10,000 fine, if already deposited, be refunded to him.
