The Allahabad High Court has acquitted a man convicted of raping his minor cousin and observed that allegations of offences such as child sexual abuse were increasingly being levelled in property dispute cases.

The man spent nine years in jail.

Justice Subhash Vidyarthi made the observation while hearing the appeal of the man against a 2020 judgement of a sessions court. The trial court had sentenced him to 20 years of imprisonment in 2020.

He had been convicted for rape and under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

The man was booked on March 18, 2016, based on the complaint filed by his minor cousin. The complainant had alleged that the man had raped her.

A medico-legal examination of the minor, conducted on March 20, 2016, said that the date and time of the alleged rape were not known.

In its July 10 order, the High Court said that the medico-legal examination had not found injuries to the girl. The evidence does not prove that the man had raped the girl, the court said.

It added that the trial court had convicted the man “without proper appreciation of evidence on record and without giving due weight to the medico-legal examination report and the pathological examination report” of the minor.

The bench said: “The courts cannot shut their eyes to the ground realities apparent from the fact that now a days it has become very common to level allegation of commission of serious and heinous offences, including offence of rape or sexual abuse of a child by the family members, in petty disputes or in order to grab property.”

The man lived alone in his house, from where he was taken into custody in 2016, and “although he had sought protection of his property by the court, it appears that no action was taken in this regard”, Justice Vidyarthi observed.

“The appellant has been made to languish in jail for more than nine years in a case in which there is no evidence to prove his guilt,” the court said, directing the police to ensure that the man is given possession of the house.

In June 2016, the man had told the trial court that the path to his house had been closed, and alleged that his father was being given death threats.

He had requested the court for directions to file a case against the persons who were harassing his father and who had implicated him in the rape case.

The High Court said in its order: “Keeping in view the nature of allegations, the finding recorded in the medico-legal examination report that there was no evidence of recent sexual penetration, cannot be brushed aside.”

The court noted that the allegations of rape against the man were not supported by the findings of the medico-legal examination report and that the prosecution had relied on statements of the girl, her parents and that no independent witness was examined.

This indicates that the man was “falsely implicated by the informant and the police in the present case”, the court observed.