LALA SAHU Vs. THE STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Petitioner Lala Sahu aged about 22 stands convicted under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code, and has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 3 years and to pay a fine of Rs. 50/ - in default, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a month more.

(2.) THE prosecution story is that the girl Gurubari Kultani aged about 17 or 18, who is fully matured and grown up, on 2 -6 -54 at about 8 a.m. had been to the fields taking gruel for the brothers who were working in the sugar -cane fields. On her return she was passing by the village path -way on one side of which is the Bari of the accused which is surrounded by a mud -wall of waist high when the accused immediately caught hold of her but as she struggled the accused lifted her bodily, took her inside the Bari and placed her on a heap of hay and had sexual inter -course with her without her consent. This occurrence, according to the story of the prosecutrix, was witnessed by two witnesses P. W. 2 a boy of 12 and P. W. 8 a boy of 15. She thereafter returned from the Bari crying and abusing the accused and told the incident to her father. The father in the first instance took the girl to the father of the accused with the proposal that the accused should marry her. The father of the accused brushed aside the question of marriage, but nevertheless assured him to take severe steps against his son. Thereafter in the evening there was a Punchayati and subsequently First Information Report was lodged by the prosecution (P. W. 1) Gurubari on 3 -6 -54 at 10 a.m., the police station being at a distance of 9 miles.

(3.) THE plea of the accused before the Sessions Court was to the effect that in fact he had sexual inter -course with the girl but nevertheless with her consent as he was in intimacy with her for sometime past.