PRAYAGRAJ, Jan. 15 -- The Allahabad high court on Tuesday set aside the conviction of a man accused of kidnapping and rape while observing that the victim did not mention anything about forcible sexual assault during her medical examination or in her statement under Section 164 CrPC made before the judicial magistrate. Allowing the appeal filed by Bhagwat Kushwaha, a bench of Justice Achal Sachdev acquitted him of charges under Sections 366 (kidnapping or abducting a woman to compel marriage) and 376 (rape) of the IPC, overturning a September 2019 judgment of the special judge (Pocso), Jhansi. The court noted that the victim had made exculpatory statements before the judicial magistrate, stating that she was in a consensual relationship with the appellant and had gone with him of her own volition. However, she later resiled from those statements during the trial, alleging kidnapping and rape. Justice Sachdev observed that the victim's act of retracting from her sworn statement before the magistrate cast a "shadow of doubt" over her integrity and substantially weakened the prosecution's case. The court emphasised that a statement recorded under Section 164 CrPC could not be discarded on "flimsy grounds" or on a mere claim that the magistrate recorded it incorrectly. The high court also relied on the medical evidence and noted that in her statement to the doctor, the earliest in point of time, the victim did not allege the use of force and had stated that she went with the appellant to Jhansi on her own. The medical report, the court said, did not support the prosecution's version of forcible abduction or rape and showed no signs of recent sexual activity or external injuries. As per the prosecution, the victim's father had lodged a complaint on May 28, 2015, alleging that she had gone missing and had been kidnapped by Kushwaha. The victim was recovered the following day and her statement was recorded. The high court found the victim's later version to be logically weak. It noted that although she claimed to have been forcibly taken from her house at night and to have raised an alarm, her parents, who were sleeping in the same house, did not wake up. The court said it was "highly probable" that if she had actually raised an alarm, her parents would not have remained asleep. The court further observed that the conviction was based solely on the victim's testimony, which was replete with contradictions. In view of the evidence on record, the high court concluded that the appellant and the victim were in a relationship and that the victim had left her parental home of her own volition....