Case against NGO for forcing woman to file false rape case

A city court has asked the Delhi Police to conduct an investigation into the role of a prominent NGO after a "rescued rape victim" told the court that a worker from the NGO had "tutored" her and told her to falsely depose that she had been raped by her employer, a businessman.

Additional Sessions Judge Nivedita Anil Sharma on Saturday acquitted the businessman — a Punjabi Bagh resident — of the charge of rape.

The court also noted that though the NGO Shakti Vahini had been associated "in over a thousand cases", this case was the first instance in which the NGO had gotten involved to the extent of filing an application for the cancellation of bail of the accused.

The businessman had been granted bail to conduct the last rites of his mother, after spending 72 days in jail. The NGO had filed an application seeking the cancellation of bail.

The court dismissed the application and noted that the NGO had no locus standi to file a petition regarding the bail of an accused.

During arguments, the court found that the woman, who was sent to the Nirmal Chhaya women's home, had written to superintendent of Nirmal Chhaya and that her employer had not raped her.

The prosecution said the woman, who hails from Assam, was a minor and was "rescued" by the NGO and police from the Punjabi Bagh home of the businessman in October 2012.

It said the woman had told police that she was being forcibly kept at the businessman's home for three years with very little pay.

The prosecution had chargesheeted the businessman for rape and under the anti-human trafficking and anti-bonded labour laws.

The chargesheet also said the woman had given a statement that she had been raped numerous times by businessman, who had also "given her some tablets" after raping her.

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