Women making false rape allegations need to be punished: Court

New Delhi: Women making false rape allegation to settle personal scores need to be prosecuted and punished, a Delhi court has observed, saying such matters cause intense misery and humiliation to the accused which continues even after acquittal in the case.

Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat while acquitting two Delhi youth from the charges of gang rape, directed the court staff to lodge a complaint against the woman with Chief Metropolitan Magistrate for making false allegations.

"Time has come to curb such tendency by directing the prosecution and punishment of the women making patently false allegation of rape to settle personal scores," the judge said.

"It can't be lost sight of that the false accusation of rape causes intense miseries and humiliation to the accused. Their plight continues even after their acquittal from the court as nobody takes note of the acquittal," the court observed adding that the even during the trial of the case "they are treated as rape convicts".

Noting that the accused undergo emotional distress during the trial, the court said, "it is high time that court should shoulder some kind of responsibility and duty towards the persons, who are made to face the trial for false rape charges."

"It is very difficult, nay impossible, to restore the lost honour and dignity of a rape accused after his acquittal from the court. They are never compensated for the emotional distress, humiliation and pecuniary damage suffered by them," it said.

According to prosecution, the woman in this case had lodged a complaint with Dwarka South police station alleging that two youths have gangraped her after offering her cold drink laced with vodka.

During the trial, the woman however retracted from her statements and denied that she was sexually assaulted by the accused.

She also confessed in the court having written a letter to the SHO of Dwarka South police station on the very next day of lodging of complaint and the arrest of the accused saying that she had lodged a false against the accused and no sexual assault had taken place.

"From the aforesaid deposition of the prosecutrix (woman) it is abundantly clear that she had made a false complaint of intoxication, gang rape and physical assault against the two accused as she wanted to teach them a lesson for the reason that they had refused to drop her at her residence when she was heavily drunk," the court said.

"Resultantly, both the accused are liable to be acquitted and are hereby acquitted as such," the court said.