R KAPADIA Vs. STATE OF MAHARASTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE accused in Sessions Case No. 41 of 1989 on the file of District and Sessions Judge, Panaji is the appellant herein. He was charged under Sections 363 and 376 I. P. C. After trial the learned Judge found him guilty and convicted him for both the offences and he was sentenced to one yearts R. I. and a fine of Rs. 500/-, in default to undergo 6 months of R. I. under Section 363 I. P. C. and sentenced to 5 years of RI. and a fine of Rs. 3,000/- In default to undergo two years of R. I. under Section 367 I. P. C. It was, also ordered that substantive sentences shall run concurrently.

(2.) THE case of the prosecution is that the accused who hails from Kasargod, Kerala had come to Goa sometime in June, 1988 in connection with film shooting and was staying in a room of one Abdul Rehman, who was a contractor at Bhoma, Panda. The prosecutrix along with her parents and her other three sisters and her brother were residing in a house close-by in the neighbourhood of said Abdul Rehman. The accused tried to entice the prosecutrix Masabi, who was a minor and who was studying in the VIth Standard in New English High School at Kundaim. Masab Bi had to pass by the side of the house of Abdul Rehman, where the accused was staying, for bringing water from the nearby well. It is the case of the prosecution that on 25th June, 1988 the accused went to the school of Masab Bi and told her that she should not go to the school from 27th onwards and also asked her to come to Panda and meet him near Alankar shop on 27th June, 1988. Accordingly prosecutrix went there and accused took her in a car to Karwar where they spent one night in a hotel and he raped her. On the next day accused took her in the same car to his house at Kasargod, Kerala, where she was kept in a room and it was locked. According to the prosecution case the accused committed rape on her in that room on four or five occasions.

(3.) IT was further the case of the prosecution that while Masab Bi was not seen coming back from the school, her father, who was a Head Constable in the Goa Police, and her brother carried out a search for her and a missing report was also lodged at the Ponda Police Station by her brother Shaikh Khwaja. According to the prosecution case one Sandip Borkar told her brother Shaikh Khwaja that he had seen Masab Bi being taken by the accused in a car. Then the aforesaid Abdul Rehman took the relatives of the prosecutrix to Kasargod, Kerala and pointed out the house of the accused. When they went inside the house of the accused, they found Masab Bi there and they brought her to Goa and handed her over to the Panda Police from where she was released in the custody of her father.