MUMBAI, 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. The girl's father first lodged a missing complaint at Agripada police station in March, 1985. Days later, he accused the two men of kidnapping his daughter. Police later traced the girl and the accused to an abandoned room in Gaikwad Nagar, Malad, and arrested them. However, Hussen later absconded, forcing the court to split the trial. The case against Hussen remained dormant for years before the court revived proceedings using provisions under Section 356 of the BNSS, which permit trials in absentia for proclaimed offenders evading arrest. Despite proceeding with the trial, the court found that the prosecution had failed to establish the charge of kidnapping. "At the outset, it may be mentioned that neither the prosecutrix nor her father, the complainant, has been examined before the Court," the judgment noted. The court said police had filed a report stating that the witnesses "could not be traced at the given address". The court further noted that the prosecution also failed to establish that the girl was a minor, with no documentary proof of age. The judgment also referred to evidence suggesting that the girl had voluntarily accompanied the accused. It also held that forensic evidence regarding blood stains on seized articles was insufficient to prove rape in the absence of the girl's testimony....