A Special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court in Pune on Thursday acquitted a 20-year-old labourer accused of stalking a 16-year-old girl and committing rape and sexual assault, holding that the prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt.
The accused, Sohel Imamsab Gadad, was facing trial in a case registered at Koregaon Park Police Station. The court accepted the girl’s birth certificate, which recorded that she was minor at the time of the alleged offences. He was charged under Sections 354(d)(2) and 376 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 4, 8 and 12 of the POCSO Act. The court acquitted him of all charges under Section 235(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The case was registered on July 9, 2023, following a complaint by the girl’s mother. The alleged offences were stated to have occurred between April and July 9, 2023, at Queens Garden in Koregaon Park. Gadad was arrested on July 10 and released on bail on August 1, 2023. Charges were framed in October 2025. The court noted that her earlier statement under Section 164 of the CrPC was partly supportive of the prosecution and partly of the accused and did not establish the charges.
However, during her testimony, the girl said she knew Gadad as a neighbour and that, apart from talking to him, “nothing happened in between them”. She also said she had no complaint against him.
Her mother also failed to substantiate the allegations, telling the court she had doubts about their relationship but had no knowledge of the contents of the complaint. Referring to a 2018 Bombay High Court judgment, the court held that the prosecution must first establish foundational facts before the statutory presumptions under Sections 29 and 30 of the POCSO Act can operate.
The court held that the foundational facts required to invoke the presumptions under Sections 29 and 30 of the POCSO Act had not been established.
Special Judge DS Deshmukh said the evidence of the two key prosecution witnesses—the girl and her mother—did not support the prosecution case.
