India, May 29 -- Nearly 40 years after a teenage girl was allegedly kidnapped, a sessions court on Thursday acquitted an absconding accused in the 1985 case, in one of the rare trials conducted in absentia under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). The court held that the prosecution failed to prove kidnapping, failed to establish the girl's age and could not even trace the complainant or prosecutrix to testify.

Additional Sessions Judge Satyanarayan R. Navander acquitted Nawab Kajim Hussen, who had been charged with kidnapping a 14-year-old girl in 1985 along with co-accused Mohammed Hanif Mohammed Yusuf, who was acquitted in 2001.

According to the prosecution, the girl's father first lodged a missing complaint at Agripada po...