Man acquitted of charges of kidnapping wife

Additional Sessions Judge Sanjay Sharma acquitted east Delhi resident Ali Raja of the charges of kidnapping his "girl friend" after she deposed in the court that she had run away from home on her own will and she was not a minor at the time of the incident.

"It is clear that the prosecution has failed to prove its case against the accused (Ali Raja). It could not be proved that either the woman was under 18 years of age at the time of the alleged incident or that she was forcibly kidnapped by the accused," the judge said.

The court said the woman "has turned hostile to the prosecution" and has favoured the accused by saying that she is his legally wedded wife. The woman, in her statement recorded in-camera, said that she had converted to Islam on October 6, 2002 and married Trilokpuri resident Raja. Now, the couple has a seven-year-old child.

On October 13, 2002, Diwan Singh, father of the woman lodged a complaint at Mayur Vihar Police Station here that his minor daughter has gone missing. The woman deposed that her father had fixed her marriage with a man and she was not happy with this decision. Thereafter, she fell in love with Raja, ran away with him and and married him.

The court declared Singh hostile for deposing the wrong date of birth of his daughter in the court. He had said that her daughter was minor at the time of incident, while the court found that as per the actual date of birth, she was major at the time of the incident.