A local court on Monday acquitted seven people in a case involving rape of a minor, child marriage and dowry demand, after the prosecution failed to prove key charges, including age of the complainant.

The court found that the complainant’s allegation that he was a minor of 15 years could not be substantiated. Additionally, DNA evidence revealed that her child was fathered by another man, Gulab Singh, with whom she was having an affair. As a result, charges against the girl’s husband, in-laws and parents were dropped.

The court acquitted the complainant’s husband Ranjeet Thakur, her father Bijender Thakur, her mother Kala Devi, her brother-in-law Nand Kishore, the complainant’s parents Narayan Thakur and Ratan Devi, and Gulab Singh.

According to the prosecution, a call was received on the Child Helpline number in February 2020 about a minor girl found at Chandigarh railway station. The girl was then accommodated in a shelter in Sector 15.

The girl, who claimed to be 15 at the time, had filed a complaint against her husband and in-laws, claiming that she was pregnant and that her in-laws were beating her to get her dowry.

But the prosecution did not verify his age through bone ossification tests, defense lawyer Pradeep Kumar said. “It was found that the girl had run away from her native village as she was having an affair with another person. She then concocted the whole story and got her husband and in-laws incarcerated in a rape and child marriage case,” he added.