TILAK CHAND Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal arises out of the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dtd. 29/10/2001 passed by the Special Judge, Rajnandgaon (C.G.) in Special Case No. 91 of 2001, whereby the appellant stands convicted and sentenced as under:-

(2.) Facts of the case in brief are that the prosecutrix (PW-1) is a resident of Ghortalab and is working as labour in Sira Dhabha. On 8/6/2001 at about 09:45 am FIR Ex.-P-5 was lodged by the prosecutrix (PW-1) a widow lady aged about 35 years alleging that on 7/6/2001 at about 03:00 pm when she was washing the utensils behind the Sira Dhabha, accused/appellant came there and told her to go towards jungle, then the appellant caught hand of the prosecutrix and touched her private part with an intent to outrage her modesty. It is alleged that due to the said act of appellant, the prosecutrix started abusing the appellant and came inside the Dhabha, where also appellant caught the prosecutrix's waist. This incident was witnessed by PW-2 Sheikh Rajjak, PW-5 Khorbaharin Bai, PW-7 Dashrath and Bihari and then report was lodged. Based on this FIR, the offence under Sec. 3(1)(xi) of the Special Act was registered against the accused/appellant and after completion of investigation, charge-sheet was filed by the police on 22/6/2001 for the offence under Sec. 3(1)(xi) of the Special Act. The Court below however framed the charges against the appellant under Sec. 354 of IPC and Sec. 3(1)(xi) of the Special Act.

(3.) So as to hold the accused/appellant guilty, the prosecution examined 8 witnesses i.e. prosecutrix (PW-1), Sheikh Rajjak (PW-2), Koprao (PW-3), G.S. Bambera (PW-4), Khorbaharin Bai (PW-5), Rajesh Joshi (PW-6), Dashrath (PW-7) and Bhuwan (PW-8) in support of its case. Statement of the accused/Appellant was also recorded under Sec. 313 of Cr.P.C. in which he denied the circumstances appearing against him in the prosecution case, pleaded innocence and false implication.