The Allahabad High Court has acquitted three men convicted of rape in a 43-year-old case, after noting that the prosecution’s evidence suffered from key contradictions, besides the unexplained delay in filing the FIR and inconsistencies in the testimonies of the two alleged rape survivors.

Justice Abdul Shahid allowed the appeal filed by the three men convicted by the trial court. The appeal also involved a fourth convict, but the proceedings against him had abated following his death while the appeal was pending.

“There has been wilful and deliberate delay in registration of the FIR. The enmity between accused persons and family of the victims has been admitted. The enmity is otherwise double edged weapon,” the court observed in the October 12 order.

What was the case?

The case arose from allegations that four men entered a house around 11 pm on October 17, 1983, when a woman and her sister-in-law were asleep inside.…