Man accused of drugging, raping woman with AIDS acquitted after she disappears

A Mumbai Sessions Court has acquitted a man accused of raping a woman living with AIDS after the complainant went missing and could not be traced during the trial.

According to the prosecution, the 35-year-old woman was allegedly drugged and raped in November 2018 by a man who offered to help her after finding her alone at a bus stop following an argument with her husband.

Police said they found the woman the next day sitting inside a bus, after which she narrated the alleged incident. She told investigators that she was her husband's second wife and that both of them were living with AIDS. Her husband had two children from his first marriage, whose wife had died.

The woman stated that after a quarrel with her husband, she left home and reached a bus stop in Mumbai's Vikhroli area. There, a man allegedly offered to take her wherever she wanted to go in his bus. According to her complaint, he drove the bus about half a kilometre away, parked it by the roadside and asked her to remain inside while he went to get food.

She alleged that the man later offered her a soft drink that had been laced with an intoxicating substance and subsequently raped her. After regaining consciousness, she claimed, she called a police helpline and was rescued from the bus.

The accused was arrested in 2023, following which a chargesheet was filed. He denied all allegations against him.

During the trial, police informed the court that repeated efforts to trace the complainant had failed. Investigators also attempted to verify whether she had died but were unable to find any evidence confirming her death.

Special Judge Surekha Sinha observed that the complainant's testimony was the primary and most material piece of evidence in the case, as the alleged incident occurred when she was alone with the accused on the bus.

“Therefore, her evidence is main and material. She was suffering from AIDS, but no medical reports were filed on record. Moreover, police have conducted the search and from time to time filed various reports on record, but she was not found,” the judge noted.

The court further observed that the accused was allegedly unknown to the complainant and that no test identification parade had been conducted.

“The accused was an unknown person to the complainant, yet no test identification parade was conducted. It was necessary for the complainant to identify the accused before the court. In the absence of her testimony, however, the contents of the complaint and the FIR remain unproved. Moreover, the identity of the accused as the alleged perpetrator has also not been established,” the court said.

The judge held that the complainant's testimony was crucial to the prosecution's case and that, without it, there was insufficient evidence to substantiate the allegations.

“In the absence of evidence from the complainant, there is no material on record to prove that the accused raped her as alleged by the prosecution. It has also not been proved that the accused administered any intoxicating or suspicious substance to the complainant or wrongfully confined her inside the bus,” the court observed.