STATE OF KARNTAKA Vs. SOMASHEKHARA,

JUDGEMENT

(1.) STATE has preferred this appeal against the judgment and order of acquittal in SC No.89/2005 passed by the Fast Track Court -V, Tumkur, dated: 07.11.2008.

(2.) CASE of the prosecution in brief is that the accused, about five months prior to 04.08.2002 had forcible sexual intercourse with the complainant(PW1), who was the maid servant in the house of accused and subsequently also, he subjected her to sexual intercourse forcibly and as a result of such intercourse, she became pregnant and delivered a female child; the accused allegedly gave threat to her life in the event of her disclosing the fact of forcible sexual intercourse to anybody; since the accused did not come forward to marry to the prosecutrix, she lodged a complaint on 04.08.2002 i.e., after five months of the incident in question, which came to be registered in Crime No.143/2002 of Kunigal Police Station for the offences punishable under Sections 376, 506 and 417 of IPC. The police after investigation have laid the charge sheet for the offence punishable under Section 376 of IPC.

(3.) IN order to prove its case, prosecution in all, examined 12 witnesses and got marked 18 exhibits. On behalf of the defence, 3 exhibits were got marked. The trial Court on evaluation of the material on record and after hearing, acquitted the accused by concluding that the prosecution has not proved its case beyond reasonable doubt with regard to all the offences with which the accused is charged. Pw1 is the prosecutrix/victim. She has lodged a complaint as per Ex.P1 on 04.08.2002, which came to be registered in Crime No.143/2002 for the offence punishable under Section 376 of IPC and other offences before Kunigal Police Station. Pw2 is the sister's husband of Pw1/victim; after having come to know about the incident from his wife Pw3, he tried to get panchayath convened in the village; however, no useful purpose was served, ultimately the complaint came to be lodged by Pw1. Though he was mahazar witness to Ex.P2 -Spot Panchanama, he did not support the case in that regard. Pw3 is the sister of Pw1; she is also hearsay witness who came to know about the incident from Pw1, only after Pw1 became pregnant. Pw4 is the relative of Pw1, who took Pw1 to the hospital for getting her checked, wherein it is found that Pw1 has become pregnant; thereafter she also tried for getting panchayath convened, but the efforts failed. Pw5 is the doctor, who examined the Pw1/victim and the accused for determining their respective age; according to the doctor, the accused was aged about 22 years and victim was aged about 30 to 40 years. Pw6 is the neighbour of the accused, but she has turned hostile.