MAJIDKHAN Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is preferred against the judgment dated 14/17-8-1987 passed by the Sessions Judge, Karwar, Uttara Kannada convicting the accused-appellant for the offences punishable under Ss. 366, IPC and 376, IPC and contencing him to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment for a Period of five years and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/- for the offence punishable under S. 366, IPC and to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment for a period of five years and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/- for the offence punishable under S. 376, IPC. The facts constituting the case of the prosecution, briefly stated, are as under :-

(2.) P.W. 5 - Prafulla Kumari is the daughter of P.W. 3 - Prabhakar Prabhu and P.W. 4 - Smt. Geetha. P.W. 3 - Prabhakar Prabhu was working as an Assistant Engineer, Micro-waves at Karwar. During the period from 198 2/07/1986 he was residing in the Staff Quarters allotted to him along with his wife-Geetha, his son - Krishna Prabhu and his daughter - Prafulla Kumari. During the relevant period that is to say, during the year 1985 Prafulla was studying in Tenth Standard in St. Michael's Convent at Karwar. Accused-Majidkhan was residing in a house adjacent to the quarters of P.W. 3 Prabhakar Prabhu. Prafulla used to go to her school by catching a bus at a place near Arjun Theatre every day. While she and her brother were going to the school, the accused used to talk to them near his house. The accused developed acquainted with these two youngsters in that way. The accused used to invite them to witness the T.V. programmes occasionally and Prafulla and her brother used to go to his house to witness the T.V. programmes. Taking advantage of the said situation, the accused lured the minor girl to go to Bombay along with him by painting a glamorous picture of Bombay City. It appears that the minor girl refused to go with him in the first instance. However, she was persuaded to accompany him. As a culmination of the same, on 15-5-1986 at about 10.00 p.m. at the instruction of the accused who was waiting behind his house, P.W. 5 Prafulla left her house and joined the accused. The accused took her in an Autorikshaw to a nearby Ice Factory situated by the side of the National Highway where a car was kept ready. From that place the accused and P.W. 5 proceeded in that car which was driven by P.W. 11 - Liakhathali Khan. The accused and Prafulla were dropped by the Driver at a place called Mastikatta. It appears that the accused wanted to take the girl to Bombay from that place in a Bus. They caught hold of a Bus leaving for Bombay and reached Bombay on 16-5-1986. At Bombay the accused took her to the house of P.W. 8 Estrilina Dias and started staying there. During the stay at Bombay, the accused purchased gold, silver and plastic articles as also clothes for the use of prosecutrix. After purchasing the articles, on 22-5-1986 the accused took the prosecutrix to Andheri along with P.W. 8 Eastrilina Dias and after taking the signatures of the prosecutrix on several typed papers, the accused got performed Nikha through P.W. 7 Syed Abdulla as per Ex. P.6. P.W. 8 left Bombay to Goa on the pretext that one of her relatives died at Goa and left accused and prosecutrix to stay exclusively in her house and during the night of 22-5-1986 the accused had sexual intercourse with the prosecutrix much against her will.

(3.) In the meantime, P.W. 3 Prabhakar Prabhu, the father of P.W. 5 - Prafulla got up from his sleep at about 4.30 a.m. on 16-5-1986. He found his daughter Prafulla missing. He searched for her in the bedroom and elsewhere in the house, but to no avail. After finding that the girl was disappearing from the house, he awakened his wife. Thereafter P.W. 3 went in a jeep to Karwar Bus stand, since the first bus from the said stand generally used to leave at 5.30 a.m. However, he did not find his daughter there. He went to Karwar Town Police Station and gave a missing complaint as per Ex. P. 28 to P.W. 21 - Ravikumar who registered a case in Crime No. 136/86. Thereafter, P.W. 3 made enquiries in the house of his relatives and started searching for his daughter. However, she was not to be found anywhere in the locality. It came to the notice of P.W. 3 Prabhakar Prabhu that the accused was also missing from his house. He, therefore, smelt a rat. To check up as regards the whereabouts of the accused P.W. 3 met his elder brother and made enquiries in that behalf. Elder brother of the accused informed P.W. 3 that on the night of 15-5-1986 the accused had left for Belgam for some work and that he was likely to return within a couple of days. After waiting for two more days P.W. 3 again approached the elder brother of the accused. With the assistance of the elder brother of the accused, a phone call was booked to P.W. 10 - Abdul Gani at Bombay. Abdul Gani when contacted on phone informed that the accused and P.W. 5 Prafulla were at Bombay. He also informed them that the accused was advised by him to go back to Karwar along with Prafulla. Naturally, therefore, P.W. 3 Prabhakar Prabhu waited for two or three days with the hope that the accused would return to Karwar along with his daughter. On 27-5-1986, Abdul Gani was again contacted. P.W. 3 came to know from him that the accused and his daughter who had left Bombay again came back to Bombay as they had no mind to go to Karwar. P.W. 3 took the address of Abdul Gani at Bombay from the brother of the accused and he left for Bombay and reached Bombay on 29-5-1986. After reaching Bombay P.W. 3 went to Andheri Police Station and informed the Inspector as regards as to what transpired. The Police Inspector after verifying the address of Abdul Gani informed P.W. 3 to contact Sahar Airport Police Station as the residence of the person at the address shown by P.W. 3 came within the jurisdiction of the said Police Station. Thereafter, P.W. 3 and the Constable contacted Abdul Gani who was working at Godrej Philips India at about 3.30 p.m. They were informed by Mr. Gani that the accused and Prafulla had come to his house the previous day and had gone back from his house. Thereafter, P.W. 3 and the Constable went to the house of Mr. Gani along with the latter. When they went there, P.W. 3 found accused and his daughter sitting on a cot along with the family members of Mr. Gani. The Constable told them that there was a complaint against them, with the result, all of them came to the Sahar Airport Police Station. It appears P.W. 3 who had come earlier to the said Police Station had given a complaint as per Ex. P 8 to P.W. 9 Sridhar. On the basis of the information as per Ex. P. 8 P.W. 9 Sridhar took charge of the girl under S. 78 of the Children's Act and arrested the accused under S. 41 for an offence punishable under S. 366, IPC. He made the necessary entries in the lock-up register at Ex. P. 9. On the same day, he sent the girl to Children's Home for safe custody. On the next day, i.e., 30-5-1986 Prafulla was produced before the Juvenile Court for Remand and the accused was produced before the Metropolitan Magistrate, 22nd Court, Andheri and he was remanded to Police custody. On 31-5-1986 the accused and the girl were taken to Police Hospital, Nagpada. In the meanwhile, P.W. 3 contacted his wife Geetha and instructed her to file a complaint before the Karwar Police Station against the accused. P.W. 3 also approached the Juvenile Court on 30-5-1986 and made the necessary application for taking back his daughter.