STATE Vs. ANGOM NAOBI SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal by the State against the acquittal of the two respondents of the charge under Section 376 I.P.C. by the Additional Sessions Judge Shri M. Radhamohan Singh. It may be mentioned here that the Sessions Judge while acquitting the respondents of rape under Section 376 I.P.C. on the ground that he was not satisfied regarding the evidence of penetration, convicted them under Section 354 I.P.C. and sentenced each of them to one year's R.I. The appeal is filed by the State on the ground that the conviction should have been under Section 376 I.P.C. as there was evidence of rape and that it should not have been under Section 354. It may also be mentioned that the 2 respondents have not appealed against their conviction and sentence under Section 354 I.P.C.

(2.) THE facts are as follows :

(3.) P . W. 15, who had received injuries washed her private parts near a nullah and then proceeded home and reported the incident to P. W. 3 her mother -in -law and P.W. 3, immediately sent P.W. 2 to fetch the victim's husband Bira Singh (P.W. 7) from the nearby Co -operative Society. On the arrival of P. Ws. 2 and 7, P.W. 15 reported the occurrence to both of them and requested her husband to take action immediately and said that she would be able to identify the culprits and further that the culprits were saying that they were going to some Basek in the locality. Immediately, P.Ws. 2, 7 and 15 started to the place where there was the Basek performance and on the way they saw some cyclists passing and P.W. 15 then pointed out one of them as the person who had committed rape on her that night. They followed the cyclists who had gone to a nearby hotel and inside the hotel P.W. 15 caught hold of the second respondent and said he was one of the persons who raped her. Thereupon, the second respondent who had a Khukri with him was about to attack P.W. 15 and P.Ws. 2 and 7 intervened and a struggle ensued in which the second respondent got injured in his palm and he was arrested by the villagers who had arrived by that time and taken to a nearby house where he was said to have made an extra judicial confession before the villagers who had apprehended him including P.W. 9.