SUJIT DEBNATH Vs. STATE OF MEGHALAYA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal brings to the fore the plight of minor victims who are sexually abused and the shoddy investigation that is undertaken as a result whereof the victim is virtually put on trial.

(2.) In the present case, a 13-year-old girl who was under the care of a woman and her husband ran away to a neighbour and was found by the neighbour in a distressed state whereupon the neighbour took the girl to the neighbour's daughter and, despite the entreaties of the neighbour and the neighbour's daughter, the girl refused to return to the house of her foster parents or even narrate the details of how she may have been mistreated at her foster parents' place for her not to want to return there. It was only after several weeks that the girl felt comfortable and she opened up and indicated that she had been raped by her foster father, whereupon the relevant neighbour's daughter lodged a first information report and took the pains to carry the girl to the women's cell of the police in Jowai where the girl was kept under the custody of the State.

(3.) According to the victim, she was raped by her foster father on July 4, 2013. The FIR was lodged at Umkiang Police Station on August 5, 2013. There was no use of her clothes or apparel being seized at that stage, since considerable time had elapsed. The medical examination conducted on the victim did not find any injuries, but reported that her hymen was found to be torn.