DEELIP SINGH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant has been charged and convicted under Section 376 IPC for committing rape of a minor girl (figured as PW12 in this case) in the month of February, 1988. The Illrd Additional Sessions Judge of katihar sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment for a period of ten years. On appeal, the High Court upheld the conviction but modified the sentence to seven years. Aggrieved thereby, the present appeal is filed by the accused. Facts:

(2.) The victim girl lodged a complaint to the police on 29.11.1988 i. e. , long after the alleged act of rape. By the date of the report, she was pregnant by six months. Broadly, the version of the victim girl was that she and the accused were neighbours and fell in love with each other and one day, the accused forcibly raped her and later consoled her saying that he would marry her, that she succumbed to the entreaties of the accused to have sexual relations with him, on account of the promise made by him to marry her and therefore continued to have sex on several occasions. After she became pregnant, she revealed the matter to her parents. Even thereafter the intimacy continued to the knowledge of the parents and other relations who were under the impression that the accused would marry the girl but the accused avoided to marry her and his father took him out of the village to thwart the bid to marry. The efforts made by the father to establish the marital tie failed and therefore she was constrained to file the complaint after waiting for sometime.

(3.) The prosecution adduced evidence in the form of school certificate and medical expert's opinion to establish that by the date of the commission of criminal act, the victim girl was aged less than 16 years in which case her consent becomes immaterial. It is on this aspect the attention was focused more by the prosecution.