VADODARA, Nov 6: The DNA profile test in criminal cases has again come under cloud with the acquittal of Harivallabh Parikh, social worker and founder of the Anand Niketan Ashram at Rangpur in Gujarat. While dismissing the case against Parikh and two others yesterday, the additional Sessions judge V N Shah threw away the DNA test as not above suspicion. Parikh was charged with raping a tribal girl in his custody.Judge Shah acquitted Parikh (74) of charges of custodial rape under Section 376 (2) of the Indian Penal Code for want of evidence. Two others, Noori Rathwa and Chandu Rathwa, who were accused of abetting the alleged crime, were also acquitted.The accused were also absolved of charges under Section 3(1)(10)(11)(12) of the Atrocities Act, as it could not be proved that the girl belonged to a Scheduled Tribe.Parikh and Rathwas have each been directed to give a bond of Rs 5,000 that they will continue at their current address for a maximum period of one year and inform the Court and Kawant police station in case of a move.The complainant has been granted 90 days to appeal against the judgment.The alleged crime and its protagonists have been in the media spotlight ever since the complainant, after delivering a still-born child in June 1996, claimed that she had been repeatedly raped by Parikh while she was a resident in his ashram. She found support among a large number of organisations, including Sahiyar and the People's Union of Civil Liberties.Though the Gujarat High Court rejected Parikh's anticipatory bail plea, he was granted regular bail in the Vadodara civil court. In the meantime, the High Court transferred the case to Shah's court.In a strongly worded judgment running into 106 pages, part of which was read out in the open court, the Additional Sessions Judge said that the prosecution's contention that the ``accused number 1 (Parikh) was not impotent had been proved wrong.'' Two doctors, Bharat Shah and Bharat Panchal had opined that the accused possessed ``secondary impotency,'' he said, adding that expert panel chairman Kanubhai Shah also could not differ.Censuring forensic experts who had concluded that Parikh had fathered the still-born child, the judge quoted a Gujarati saying: Doctor-saheb soonthna kankre Gandhi thava nikalya hoy tem (The doctor was trying to portray himself as something of an expert with a half-baked DNA report based on just one of the branches of such a test carried out with limited resources. The DNA test has been brandished as a trump card in these proceedings.)''The doctor had ``committed a serious blunder in the report'', the court stated.Further, the court said, while Nanubhai, who buried the stillborn baby, had claimed the burial site was under a tree, the bones had been discovered from a sand-bed near the river. All the bones had not been found and some did not match the others, the judge observed, adding that it still needed to be ascertained whether the child belonged to the tribal girl or not.Despite instructions to determine the mother of the child, the DNA test had been undertaken with the assumption that it was the tribal girl's progeny, the court observed, adding that a wrong decision on the basis on the DNA test could not be ruled out.Further, the court said that the DNA experts had admitted that the data bank was inadequate. Although it was necessary to preserve coloured tests, black and white photographs had been taken in the full knowledge of the fact that their density would lessen. This, the court observed, had ``delivered a severe blow to the proceedings.''The judgment added, ``Since further inquiry into the case has been avoided, the DNA report is not above suspicion.'' The court came down very heavily on the complainant, stating that ``it was clearly with the intention of harassing the accused and preventing him from getting bail'' that she had contradicted herself during the proceedings.
