ANANDHAN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The revision petitioner is the accused who has been convicted by the trial Court under Section 366 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for four years and a fine of Rs. 200.00 in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months, which has been confirmed by the appellate Court. The accused stood charged under Sections 366 and 376 I.P.C. but he has been acquitted of the charge under Section 376 I.P.C. on the ground that she was a consenting party to sexual intercourse and she was above 16 years of age. We have to only see whether the conviction and sentence passed under Section 366 I.P.C. by the Courts below is correct or not.

(2.) The case against the accused who was aged 20 is that P.W. 2 Sharmugaselvi who was 13 years of age was living with her mother P.W. 1 at Tiruvarur and the accused was living just about 10 or 15 feets away from the house of P.W. 1 and while so on 13-9-1989 at about 6.00 p.m., when P.W. 2 was going from her house to the house of her tuition master, at the Kodikkalpalayam bus stop, the accused enticed her by saying that they would go to cinema, drama and outstations, and took her in a bus to Tiruvarur bus stand and from there he took her in a bus to Chidambaram bus stand where they reached at about 9.30 p.m. There the accused took out a Thali from his bag and in spite of her protest he tied it around her neck and kept her there in the bus stand throughout the night and on the next day morning he took her in a bus to Pondicherry and there near the new bus stand he kept her in a hut where a man by name Vanathaiyan and an old lady were living and in the night he forcibly had sexual intercourse with her, and because she had no money and she was under the custody of the old lady and the accused threatened her that she should not leave the place, she was there for about a month.

(3.) On coming to know of this the father of the accused along with some others came there and took both the accused and P.W. 2 to Thiruvarur Police station. Earlier the mother of the girl P.W. 1 had given a report to the police. After investigation of the case the charge sheet was filed.