BENGALURU: A 78-year-old South Korean who runs an orphanage at Byrathi Bande , near Kothanur in northeast Bengaluru , has been acquitted of the charge of raping an inmate by a local court, which cited the prosecution’s failure to prove the allegation.

Do-Wong Choy, a resident of Kacharakanahalli, and co-accused Manual Jaysingh, 34, a resident of Kaval Byrasandra, were acquitted on January 9 by the 50th additional city civil and sessions court.

Kothanur police had registered a case of rape, sexual harassment and criminal intimidation against Choy and Jaysingh based on a complaint filed by the woman on July 13, 2013. The complainant had alleged that she was raped by Choy in the orphanage from 1996 till she left it in 2006 and the act was allegedly recorded by Jaysingh.

However, the court noted that the prosecution failed to produce any videos of the alleged act even though they had seized more than 40 video CDs from the accused. The only CD produced before the court showed no sexual harassment and the woman admitted during her deposition that she was not in the video, Judge Susheela said.

The complainant was also not able to justify the delay in reporting the incident to police. She agreed in court during cross-examination that she filed the complaint on the suggestion of a few activists of an organization’s, of which she’s a member.

The court also took note of the fact that there were differences between Choy and the organization activists over a property.

The court said the woman’s medical examination was unable to confirm that she had sexual intercourse during the four preceding days. “She was married in 2006 and had two children from the marital relationship. Such being the case, it’s not safe to accept that she was sexually abused by the accused prior to the marriage too. The doctor also admitted that he’s not able to confirm whether the woman was involved in any sexual activity before marriage,” the judgement read.

Choy was arrested on July 20, 2014 and released on bail on August 26, 2014. Jaysingh was arrested on July 27, 2013 and released on bail on August 21, 2013.

