MST ASMA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellants have been convicted under Sections 363 and 366 I. P. C. by a Civil and Sessions Judge of Kanpur and sentenced to 3 years' R. I. and 4 years' R. I. It is alleged that a girl named Shubratan, under 18 years in age, had been kidnapped by the appellants from the lawful guardianship of her lather Maqdoom. The father died before the trial but his statement before the Committing Magistrate was admitted at the trial under Section 33 of the Indian Evidence Act.

(2.) THE girl had given out her age. In the witness box, as 20 years on 6-8-1963, but her statement has been rightly disbelieved by the learned Sessions' Judge in view of the opinions of Dr. G. C. Agarwal and lady Dr. C. Mitra, given after examination of X-ray plates of the joints of the girl's limbs, and the unchallenged statement of the father in the committing Magistrate's court. At the time of the alleged occurrence, round about 18th of June, 1962, the girl must have been between 14 and 15 years. The girl was living before her alleged kidnapping, under the lawful guardianship of her father Maqdoom in Mohalla Baqarganj in the city of Kanpur.

(3.) THE prosecution case was that on 18-6-1962, when the father of the girl went out to purchase some vegetables, the girl was fetched from the house of Smt. Asma, appellant, the wife of Ramzani appellant, who also lives nearby in the same Mohalla. The father did not find Km. Shubratan when he returned home from the vegetable market, but, when he called out, the girl came out from the nearby house of Ramzani and Sm. Asma. According to the prosecution case, Sm. Asma, appellant, took the girl again to her house at about noon. And then her husband Ramzani, according to the prosecution case, tried to persuade the girl to marry the appellant Ayub.