SANTOSH KUMAR Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY the judgment and order dated 29.1.1981 the appellant was found guilty and convicted of the offences under Sections 366 and 376. I.P.C. in S.T. No. 99 of 1979 and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for 4 years under each count. The sentences were, however, made to run concurrently.

(2.) THE prosecution story in brief has been that the accused appellant had enticed one Km. Savita, aged about 16 years when she had gone to take examination of High School on 4.5.1979. THE first information report about the incident is said to have been lodged on 10.5.1979, also conveying that she was seen with the accused by Babu Ram and Santosh Kumar. THE girl is said to have been recovered when she was staying with the accused in a Dharmshala in Modi Nagar. on 19.5.1978 by the Sub-Inspector of Police. Santosh Kumar, the appellant accused was arrested on the same date.

(3.) THE prosecution had examined P.W. 1, P. D. Sharrma, the Sub- Inspector of Police who had arrested the accused and recovered Km. Savita from Dharamshala on 19.5.1978 P.W. 2 Santosh Kumar and P.W. 6 Babu Ram were examined to State that they had seen the accused and Km. Savita going together on the date of alleged enticement. Ass to what is the value thereof may be considered below if required and for the present it may be said that there is no occasion for discarding their evidence P.W. 3 Gajraj was the manager of the dharamshala where the two had stayed and obviously there is not much dispute about that factor. P.W. 7 Atma Ram the father was not an eye witness of anything except the matter of age which I have already accepted. I am not prepared to accept his contention that Km. Savita was below 16 years at that time as it is in contradiction with both the medical evidence as well as the recorded date of birth which presumably must have been given by him long before the alleged occurrence itself. P.W. 8 Chandra Prakash was an X-ray Technician and his evidence was formal while P.W. 9 Surendra Singh, Sub-Inspector of Police had investigated the case.