SHYAM LAL Vs. STATE OF M P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is di-rected against the judgment and order dated 4.7.1996 passed by Special Judge, Raipur in Special Case No. 284/1996 convicting the ac-cused/ appellant for the offence punishable un-der Section 3(1)(XI) of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (for short the "Act") and sentencing him to un-dergo rigorous imprisonment for one year and pay fine of Rs. 700, in default of payment of fine to further undergo simple imprisonment for three months.

(2.) Facts of the case in brief are that on 16.1.1996 at about 11.45 p.m. FIR Ex. PI was lodged by the prosecutrix (PW1) a married lady aged about 45 years alleging that on that day at about 8.30 p.m. when she was sleeping in her house and that her husband had not returned from his workplace, accused/appellant came there, sat on her bed and pulled out her sari with an intention to outrage her modesty. It is alleged that due to her sari being pulled out by the accused/appellant she had become naked. Thereafter, allegedly she came out of her house in the naked condition and started shouting for help on hearing which her neighbours namely Sukhram (PW2) and Krishna Bai (PW3) came there and she covered herself with the Lungi given to her by Sukhram (PW2) and then the report was lodged. Based on this FIR, the of-fence under Section 354 IPC was registered against the accused/appellant and after comple-tion of investigation challan was filed by the police on 22.3.1996 for the offences under Sec-tions 354 and 456 IPC and 3(1)(XI) of the Act. The Court below however framed the charge against the appellant only under Section 3(1)(XI) of the Act.

(3.) So as to hold the accused/appellant guilty, prosecution has examined 6 witnesses in sup-port of its case. Statement of the accused/ap-pellant was also recorded under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in which he denied the charges levelled against him and pleaded his innocence and false implication in the case.