Lack of evidence: Bengaluru court acquits man in marital abuse case

Bengaluru: A local court in the city Friday acquitted a man of the charges of subjecting his wife to unnatural sex during the initial days of their marriage. The accused, Vikram Vincent, was also acquitted of the remaining charges, which included domestic violence and crimes under the IT Act.

Vikram, a resident of Ejipura, runs an EdTech (educational technology) startup in the city and got married in 2015. The case was registered with Viveknagar police station in 2017 by his wife, accusing him of marital harassment, unnatural sex, and circulation of explicit content to her family.

In 2022, the accused first moved Karnataka high court to quash the FIR registered against him. The aggrieved spouse filed a writ petition for reinvestigation. A combined order was passed for both and the court then pulled police up for “shoddy investigation”. Finally, passing the orders, the trial court, stating there was insufficient evidence against Vikram, freed him of the charges.

Counsel for Vikram, Sanjay Sugumaran from Arcadia Legal Services, said that revised statements by the complainant and a lack of medical and technical evidence saw the court acquit his client. “The trial court acquitted the accused on all counts, citing material contradictions in the prosecution’s narrative, which evolved across multiple statements. The court deemed these discrepancies substantial, destroying witness credibility and failing to meet the ‘sterling witness’ standard. Furthermore, the case lacked contemporaneous medical evidence, as examinations revealed no injuries despite claims of repeated painful acts on the complainant. Crucially, electronic evidence failed to meet statutory requirements under the Evidence Act, with forensic analyses failing to connect the accused to the alleged transmissions. Ultimately, these deficiencies created reasonable doubt,” he said.