Bengaluru: Five years after being accused of sexually abusing his own daughter by his wife, French diplomat Pascal Mazurier was acquitted by a court in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
Soon after the verdict, Mazurier told reporters: “It has been a long battle, but I am happy that justice has been done… When you understand that you are being betrayed by your wife, you are under immense trauma. God gave me the strength to fight."
“A lot of people commit suicide when such charges are levelled. My estranged wife is the one who is a criminal," he added.
The complainant, an Indian national, said she will appeal against the order in a higher court. She told News18 that she will still “protect" her children from the father and will ensure that he has no access to them.
“This is a fit case for appeal and we will be going to the high court," said prosecutor B T Venkatesh.
In 2012, Mazurier’s wife had accused him of assaulting their four-year-old daughter. He was posted as the deputy chief of the French consulate in Bengaluru at the time of the incident.
Mazurier was arrested on June 19, 2012. His wife had accused that she had been suspecting some wrongdoing and on June 14, 2012 Pascal locked himself in a room with the four-year-old. She had claimed that she had taken the child to a local hospital where the doctors had confirmed physical assault.
She filed a police case against Mazurier and five days later he was arrested.
Mazurier had spent four months in jail and was later released on bail. He was booked under Sections 376 (rape) and 377 of the Indian Penal Code.
Later, the court had allowed him visit to his two other kids for an hour, but not the daughter who was identified in the case.
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