RAMDAS Vs. STATE OF MAHARASTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In these appeals by special leave the appellants Ramdas, Ashok and Madhukar have challenged their conviction under Section 376 read with Section 34 IPC and Section 3(2)(v) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. They were tried by the VIth Additional Sessions Judge, Beed in Special Case No. 69 of 1996 charged of having committed the aforesaid offences. The trial court by its judgment and order of July 30, 1998 found them guilty of the aforesaid offences and sentenced them to undergo imprisonment for life under Section 376/34 IPC but passed no separate sentence under Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. On appeal, the High Court by its impugned judgment and order of July 1, 2005 in Criminal Appeal Nos. 225, 229 and 251 of 1998 dismissed the appeals preferred by the appellants.

(2.) The occurrence giving rise to the present appeals is said to have occurred on January 10, 1996 at about 10.00 p.m. The case of the prosecutrix, as deposed to by her, is that she belongs to Pardhi caste. She was married 3 years earlier and was residing at her matrimonial home at village Ekurka. Her parents and other family members resided at village Kewad. She had come to village Kewad on January 9, 1996, a day previous to the date of occurrence. Her parents and brothers had gone to work in Jagdamba Sugar Factory in the Ahemadnagar district. She had come to her village Kewad to help them in harvesting of the pulse crop grown by her parents. She came to the village Kewad on Saturday and the incident took place on Sunday, the very next day. In village Kewad, she was residing in the house of her father along with her niece Sharda, aged about 10 years, who was the daughter of her sister Sindhubai, PW-3. On the date of the occurrence, after working in the fields, she had returned to her home and taken her dinner. At about 10.00 p.m. appellant Ramdas came to her house and asked her as to what she was doing. She replied that she had just taken her dinner whereupon appellant Ramdas asked her to come out with him. When she refused to do so, he dragged her outside the house and whistled twice. The remaining two appellants came on signal being given by him and they all dragged her to a distance of about 500 feet from her house. When she was being dragged out of her house, she raised alarm but no one came to her rescue. She was thereafter raped by all the three appellants who threatened her not to report the matter to anyone otherwise she will be killed. After the occurrence she returned home at about midnight and then went to sleep. She admitted that her uncles were living in the adjacent houses but one of them was not in the village on the night of occurrence, while the other uncle Fakkad (PW-5) living in the adjacent house did not come to her rescue as he had been threatened by appellant Ramdas before she was dragged outside the house. Since it was midnight, she did not report the matter to anyone. Her uncle and aunt already knew about the incident.

(3.) Next morning she went to her sister, PW-3 at village Kelgaon who advised her to lodge a report. She along with PW-3 and two others, namely Yamunabai and Subbabai went to police station Kaij and reported the matter. However, the information given by her was neither recorded nor any action taken. She thereafter returned to village Kelgaon and on the next day she went to Jagdamba Sugar Factory and narrated the incident to her parents. On the day following, she came to Beed and narrated the incident to the Superintendent of Police. Thereafter she went to police station Beed in the night at about 10.00 p.m. along with her parents and lodged the report about the incident. She was then sent to the Civil Hospital, Beed for examination. The report lodged by her was shown to the witness who was examined as PW-2 and she admitted that the same bore her thumb mark. The contents of the report was read over to her and she certified them to be correct. The report was marked as Ext. 22. It is worth noticing at this stage that the report was lodged on January 18, 1996 i.e. 8 days after the occurrence.