Court acquits man of rape charge, wants curbs on false cases

New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) A Delhi court has acquitted a man accused of raping his maid, terming it an example of a placement agency maid raising false allegations against her employer only to "achieve her selfish ends of extorting money".

Acquitting Parmod Kamlani of the charges, Additional Sessions Judge Nivedita Anil Sharma said the government should frame guidelines for regulating agencies supplying domestic help to curb registration of such false cases.

"There were major contradictions in the prosecution story which made it unbelievable and improbable," the court said in a recent judgment, adding that the evidence proved that the 18-year-old maid had levelled false allegations of rape against her employer.

"Considering the crying need of the day, it is required that some regulatory law or policy is made by the government and police so that there can be check on placement agencies and it is made compulsory that police verification of the maids and servants is done before they take up employment."

The judge said: "In my considered view, it is time that we as a civil society stand up not to only protect, shelter and rehabilitate a victim of rape but also to protect and shelter an accused against whom false allegations of rape have been levelled."

The court said copy of the order be sent to secretaries, law and justice of the central and the Delhi governments, the chairpersons of the National Commission for Women and the Delhi Commission for Women and the Commissioner and additional commissioner (west) of Delhi Police for information purpose.

The judge added, "this trend requires to be nipped in the bud itself and the precious time of the government agencies i.e. the police, the prosecution, the judiciary etc., should not be wasted".

The maid, who was hired through a placement agency, was allegedly raped by her employer twice in his house between January to March 2012. She was threatened not to disclose it and was also beaten by him, police said.

The police said the maid was raped by Kamlani when she was doing her work in the house and his wife was not at home and his children were sleeping, and she reported the matter to police after two-three months.

The court said the statement of maid is unreliable and not trustworthy.

Though she stated that she never had physical relations with anyone else and the child in her womb was of the accused, she later also levelled allegations against her previous employer, the court noted.

"The FSL (Forensic Science Laboratories) reports show that neither the accused nor her previous employer are the biological father of the child, which indicates that she had physical relations with some other man who has fathered her child," and she is deliberately not disclosing his name, the court said.

Kamlani told the court that a false case was lodged against him by the maid and others as he had complained to the placement agency owner about her inefficiency in doing work.

Has our society and judiciary created a new Frankenstein?

I wonder.

With the spate of false cases that are being filed by women against men if they do not get what they want, I fear a day may come when men may stop marrying for fear of their wives filing false cases landing them in jails.

I agree that women have been tortured and have been at the receiving end of men's violence and torture but the remedy that has been made into law is probably worse than the disease.

I would suggest the judiciary find a middle path so that no false cases are filed and no person who may torture a women is allowed to go free and is punished immediately.