Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court has acquitted Mehndi Hasan, accused in a 1984 rape case, due to lack of evidence. A single bench of Justice Tej Pratap Tiwari set aside the May 25, 1987, decision of the Special Judge (EC Act) Additional Sessions Judge Court of Jalaun, which had sentenced Mehndi Hasan to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment under Section 376 of the IPC.

According to the prosecution, on September 27, 1984, in Jakha village, under the jurisdiction of Kuthaund police station in Jalaun, a woman took the victim out of her home on the pretext of fetching soil. There, the accused, Mehndi Hasan, grabbed her, beat her, choked her, and raped her. Following the incident, the victim’s husband filed a complaint with the Senior Superintendent of Police, Jalaun, on October 1, 1984, following which an FIR was registered on October 8, 1984, approximately 11 days after the incident. The court found serious contradictions in the witness statements, such as differing accounts of the victim’s husband’s return home, and discrepancies between the FIR and the testimony regarding how witness Ganga Ram learned of the incident. Furthermore, the victim’s medical examination was conducted 13 days after the incident, and the report revealed no injuries, despite the victim’s own self-inflicted injuries. The doctor who conducted the examination was also not produced in court, weakening the evidentiary validity of the medical report. Citing the Supreme Court’s case of Nirmal Premkumar v. State of Tamil Nadu (2024), the court held that the victim’s statement must be consistent from beginning to end, and if there are contradictions, other corroborating evidence is required. Based on these shortcomings, the court granted the accused the benefit of the doubt, setting aside the conviction, and allowing the appeal.