HIGH Court judge Justice Prabaharan Kumararatnam yesterday acquitted a man charged with a count of rape.
The man is alleged to have raped his niece and had pleaded not guilty to the offence.
After a three-day trial, the three assessors returned with a not guilty opinion. Justice Kumararatnam concurred with the assessors’ opinion.
The man was alleged to have raped the complainant between April 1, 2012 and May 31 of the same year in a settlement in Nausori.
The judge rejected the prosecution’s version of the case, which had stated the complainant was raped at a bus shelter in Nausori.
The prosecution’s case was that the wife of the accused had asked the complainant to take the accused to the bus shelter because it was raining and that they had shared an umbrella.
At the bus stop, the complainant had said that the accused pulled her towards him and raped her.
The judge in his judgment stated there was contradicting statements in the evidence given by the prosecution witnesses.
