PRADIP KUMAR Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PARDEEP Kumar, appellant was tried for offences under Section 363/366/376, Indian Penal Code by Shri H.S. Bakhshi, Additional Sessons Judge, Gurdaspur. The learned Judge acquitted the appellant of the charge under Section 366, Indian Penal Code but convicted him for the other two offences. The appellant was awarded 9 months rigorous imprisonment and to pay fine of Rs. 100/- for the offence under Section 363. Indian Penal Code, and rigorous imprisonment for 1-1/2 years and to pay a fine of Rs. 100/- for the offence under Section 376, Indian Penal Code. The sentence were ordered to run concurrently. Aggrieved against the order of the learned Additional Sessons Judge, the appellant has come up in appeal.

(2.) THE appellant belonging to the weaker sections of the society. The prosecutrix Darshna Kumari too belongs to the weaker sections of the society. Their respective families were making their ends meet by doing casual labour. They were neighbours living in a locality in the town of Pathankot. Only two or three houses intervened their respective houses. On 23.6.1986 Darshna Kumari had reason to leave her house to locate her mother who had gone out earlier in the day, and had for the purpose taken a rickshaw. While mobile, the appellant also came and took a seat with her threatening her that she should accompany him otherwise he would kill her. Frightened as she was, Darshna Kumari kept mum and was taken to Amritsar by the appellant. They spent the night in the precincts of the Golden Temple. Next day she was removed to the house of some one where they got a separate room to spend the night. The appellant had sexual intercourse with her twice against her will and without her consent in that while. Next morning, he took her back to the Golden Temple where they spent the night. Still next morning, the appellant told her that he would get her admitted to the Nari Niketan, Amritsar. However, he left her in lurch and told her to go to Nari Niketan by herself. She managed to reach there and at the gate, started crying. At the behest of the Chowkidar, Miss Charan Kaur, Assistant Superintendent (P.W. 3) took pity on her and admitted her in that institution. She sent the letter Exhibit PE to Puran Chand, father of the prosecutrix who turned up on 1.7.1980 and took his daughter away. On their return to Pathankot, they came across a local Police Inspector to whom the occurrence was narrated by the prosecurtix. She was medically examined on 2.7.1980. So was the appellant when arrested on 2.7.1980.

(3.) WITH regard to the offence under Section 363/366, Indian Penal Code, the learned Judge observed as follows :-