MUMBAI: A special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (

) Act court recently acquitted a now 30-year-old man arrested in 2013 on charges of raping a “13-year-old” girl in his neighbourhood, despite the fact that she gave birth to a baby whose DNA matched his.

The court said the girl’s school documents showing that she was 13 years old at the time of the offence were not reliable evidence to prove that she was indeed a minor then. The court also held that the relationship was “consensual”.

“No doubt it is proved on record that the victim and the accused are biological parents of the child. But as I have held that sex between the accused and the victim was consensual and the age of the victim not proved by the prosecution beyond reasonable doubt, I am of the opinion that there is necessity to give benefit of doubt to the accused,” said the court. The Pocso Act defines a child as an person who is aged below 18. It further states that sexual relations with a person under the age of 18 amount to an offence.

The complaint was lodged by the girl’s father in December 2013. He said after completing his night shift as an autorickshaw driver, he returned home on the morning of December 12, 2013, to find his daughter missing. When her father started looking for her, he saw her shoes outside the accused’s residence. When he knocked on the door and the accused opened it, he saw this daughter was asleep on one bed while the wife of the accused was on the other. When he asked the accused why his daughter was at his place, he replied that they had gone to a temple and had returned home late and therefore she had decided to spend the night there. The father then woke up the girl and took her home as he wanted to drop her to the school bus.

It was further submitted that when the girl’s mother questioned her, she confided in her and said that over the past year, the accused had been taking her to a house and having sex with her. The mother then took her to a hospital to get her examined. Doctors found that she was pregnant and an FIR was subsequently registered against the accused.

The accused said he had been falsely implicated in the case as the father had been demanding money for purchasing an autorickshaw. He further claimed that the girl’s parents were opposed to their friendship.