DUSASAN PADHAN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Appellant was, by a unanimous verdict of the jury, found guilty of the offences punishable under Sections 366 and 376, Indian Penal Code. The learned Sessions Judge, Cuttack -Dhenkanal, accepted the verdict of the jury holding that the verdict was not perverse or opposed to law and convicted, the Appellant Dusasan Padhan under the said sections and sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment for five years on each count, the sentences to run concurrently.

(2.) THE Appellant was an employee of the Railway Watch and Ward Department at the Cuttack Railway Station under the supervision of the Assistant Inspector, Watch and Ward (P. W. 8). The prosecutrix (P. W. 1), was with her father -in -Law at Kodala, a village near Angul. Her husband (P. W. 3), was working in a flour mill at Cuttack. A few days before the day of occurrence which she intimated to her husband on receipt of which the husband went to Angul and brought her with him on 5 -12 -54 by Talcher Passenger which reached Cuttack at about 8 P.M. They purchased only one ticket and that too up to Hindol Road. That day happened also to be a 24 hours check day at Cuttack Railway Station by travelling Ticket Inspectors batch by batch. After alighting from the train, P. W. 3 left P. W. 1 near the water chamber close to the Inter Class Waiting Room and came out in the guise of purchasing Pan and Bidi. The Ticket Collector (P. W.10, caught him and as the Ticket Collector could not leave his post before the Khargpur - Waltair Passenger left the station at 11 P. M., he detained P. W. 3 in the T. T. 1 office room almost till 11 -30 P.M. when he took down his address and charge -sheeted him under Section 113 of the Railways Act. Ext. 15 is the charge -sheet. It is the prosecution case that the duty hours of the Appellant were from 2 P.M. to 6 P.M. on the 5th afternoon and again from 2 A.M. to 6 A.M. which would be, according to the Gregorian Calendar, 6th December. His duty was to guard the parcel office near the Inter Class Waiting Room in front of which parcels from the trains were loaded and unloaded. He was provided with no railway quarters and so used to come to attend duty from his village Kandarpur, about 12 miles away from the Railway Station at about dusk and spend the night on the platform. Finding P. W. 1 alone near the Inter Class Waiting Room verandah, on the 'Pretext of escorting her to her husband's quarter near the Bhima Ice Factory within the Flour Mill premises, he took her beyond the platform to open space between the college and the Railway quarters and in the dark shade, under a banyan tree, raped her despite the resistance that she could offer and then brought her towards the station where, she insisted, she should be left. Before reaching the station platform, they met P. W. 9 whom the accused asked to leave P. W. 1 near the Inter Class Waiting Room but he refused.

(3.) THE accused pleaded not guilty and denied his presence at the railway station before 12.30 A.M. He stated that he lived In a rented quarter with his wife and came to the station at 12.30 A.M. on 6 -12 -54 being awakened by his wife to attend to his duty when he was arrested. He denied the overcoat as belonging to him. The ownership of the rest of the articles seized was admitted, but he stated that the articles seized at 6 A.M. had been kept by him in the Watch and Ward office wherefrom they were seized. He admitted that he wore the half pant and the underwear which were seized by the Sub -Inspector. He denied having led the Investigating Officer to the place of occurrence and seeing P. W.9 with whom, he alleged, he had some enmity.