India, Jan. 16 -- The Bombay High Court has cleared a 26-year-old man of rape after noting that the 11-year-old survivor's statement that he "attempted to make forcible physical relations with her" had come as a reply to a leading question put to her by the prosecutor during her testimony.

A single-judge bench of justice Rajnish Vyas acquitted Sagar Sable, a Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar resident, observing that such a statement cannot be accepted as valid evidence to prove rape. The court, however, upheld Sable's conviction for kidnapping and sexual harassment, noting that there was enough evidence available to prove that the accused had enticed the 11-year-old girl from the lawful custody of her parents and disrobed her in his house.

Sabl...