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Nazre Alam @ Ravi & Anr vs. State of NCT of Delhi

Criminal Appeal · 2026:DHC:7906Decided 16 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
CRL.A. 904/2012CNR: DLHC011256612012
Justice Vimal Kumar Yadav

Background

A young woman reported that she had been lured from her village, brought to Delhi, sold into prostitution, and confined and raped over about a month before escaping to a police station. She named the appellant (Nazre Alam @ Ravi) and his wife as among those who had confined and exploited her. However, when she later testified in court, she reversed course and gave the appellants a "clean chit," while maintaining her account against two other men who could never be traced or arrested. The trial court had convicted the appellants only of wrongful confinement of a kidnapped person (not rape or trafficking), relying partly on her original police statement and statement to a magistrate.

Decision Breakdown

The High Court found the case "a strong mix of empathy and apathy": police acted promptly, but a hospital doctor's mishandling of a later-aborted foetus (preserved in a chemical that destroyed its DNA evidence) meant scientific proof was lost. The Court held that even though the woman's later trial testimony appeared to have been influenced to protect the appellants (evidenced by her own admission that she went to the police "on my own" to report what happened), the law requires proof that the appellants specifically knew she had been kidnapped before confining her, and this specific "knowledge" element was not established on the evidence, since she had, at trial, denied being wronged or confined by the appellants.

Lesson Learnt

To convict someone of wrongfully confining a kidnapped person under Section 368 IPC, prosecutors must prove not just that confinement happened, but that the accused specifically knew the person had been kidnapped: a gap in this specific proof, even amid suspicious circumstances, can lead to acquittal on appeal.

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