New Delhi, May 21 (PTI): A judge who tried a rape case has moved a Delhi court against a woman for retracting her earlier statement, made before a magistrate, that she was criminally assaulted.

The unusual move by additional sessions judge Reena Singh Nag comes at a time when the judicial system has been blighted by the problem of witnesses turning hostile in high-profile criminal cases.

Nag lodged a criminal complaint under section 193 (giving false evidence in a judicial proceeding) of the Indian Penal Code against the woman who testified at the trial that she wasn’t raped at all.

“Her (earlier) statement was also recorded by metropolitan magistrate Veena Rani under section 164 of the CrPC wherein she stated on oath that accused Devinder Verma had raped her,” Nag’s complaint, lodged before additional chief metropolitan magistrate Sanjeev Jain, said.

“In her cross-examination by (the) additional public prosecutor for the state, she stated that she was making (the) statement with full responsibility without being misled by anyone and further added that the accused was innocent.”

Nag named the additional public prosecutor as her representative and sought exemption from personal appearance as complainant before the magistrate.

The woman had filed her sexual assault complaint on November 30, 2005. It said she was raped several times by Verma with whom she had developed a friendship following regular conversations over the telephone. A case was then lodged under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.

But the woman retracted her statement during the trial, leading to the acquittal of Verma, who had spent several months in jail.

One of the highest-profile hostile witnesses in recent times has been Zahira Sheikh, who changed her statement several times during the trial and retrial of the Best Bakery killings in Vadodara during the Gujarat riots. The Supreme Court on March 8 sentenced her to a year’s imprisonment and a Rs 50,000 fine for contempt of court.