VISHWANATH Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant is assailing the judgment dated 01.01.2018 rendered by the Additional Sessions Judge, Chandrapur in Special (Atro) Case 6 of 2011 whereby the appellant is convicted for offence punishable under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code and is sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for two years and to payment of fine of Rs.5000/- and in default to suffer further rigorous imprisonment for two months. The accused is acquitted of offence punishable under Section 506 of the IPC and Section 3(1)(xi) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act , 1989 (Atrocities Act).

(2.) The prosecution case:-

(3.) Shri Morande, the learned counsel for the accused would submit that the first information report is lodged belatedly which creates serious doubt as regards the prosecution version. The next submission is that the defence of false implication is probablized on the touchstone of preponderance of probabilities. My attention is invited to the admission in the cross-examination of the mother-in-law of the informant which is to the effect that the wife of the accused leveled false allegations and defamed the informant. Shri Morande would emphasize that the material witnesses have not supported the prosecution and that it would not be safe to base the conviction on the uncorroborated testimony of the informant. Per contra, the learned APP would submit that the delay in lodging the first information report, assuming that the report is lodged belatedly, is satisfactorily explained. The learned APP would invite my attention to the settled position of law that in cases of sexual assault the delay in lodging the first information report is not necessarily fatal and the court must be alive to the sensitivities and sensibilities of the victim and the ground reality and more often than not the victim is reluctant to approach the police. The learned APP would emphasize that a victim of sexual offence is not an accomplice and therefore, if the evidence of the victim is found reliable no corroboration need be sought.