Thane gangrape case: Three accused acquitted for "lack of evidence"

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Three men accused in a gangrape case have been acquitted by an additional sessions court judge in Maharashtra's Thane district citing a "lack of evidence."

The acquittal of Fletcher Dalmet (24), Searock Munis (24), and Parag Soj (27) was granted by additional sessions court judge Amit Shete on January 16, with the details of the order made available on Thursday, newswire PTI reported.

The first information report (FIR) in the Thane gangrape case was filed at Uttan Sagari police station under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 376 (2) (n) (repeated rape on the same woman), 376-D (gang-rape), 354-B (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe), and 417 (cheating), the PTI report said.

The accused had committed the offence from 2017 to November 2018, the prosecution said.

During the trial, the prosecution argued that the accused had committed the sexual offences against the 24-year-old woman, but the defence denied all charges.

After examining four witnesses and various documents, the court observed that the evidence presented was not strong enough to establish the charges against the accused in the Thane gangrape case.

The court said the testimony of the complainant lacked credibility and no corroborative material supported the allegations. The prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

Meanwhile, Police has registered a case against man from Maharashtra's Thane district for allegedly molesting his 12-year-old daughter, an official said on Thursday.

The victim, a student of Class 5, resided with her parents in Ambernath area.

On January 15 and 22, the 40-year-old man allegedly molested his daughter while she was asleep and later threatened her with dire consequences if she informed about it to anyone, the official from Kulgaon police station said.

The victim informed about the offence to her mother, who subsequently filed a police complaint.

The police on Wednesday registered a case against the accused under Indian Penal Code sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 506 (criminal intimidation) and relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the official said.

A probe was on into the case.