SOM NATH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SOM Nath (appellant) has been convicted by the Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Ludhiana for offence under section 376 IPC to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years and to pay a fine of Rs. 2,000/- and in default of payment of fine to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months. While awarding sentence of five years, the learned trial Court took into consideration the fact that accused was a young boy.

(2.) THE appellant was named as accused in FIR No. 190 dated 20.09.1994 registered at Police Station Civil Lines, Ludhiana under section 376 IPC. FIR (Ex.PW 8/B) was recorded at the instance of Prem Singh son of Bhagat Singh, who stated that he has three sons namely Tejinder Singh, Kulwant Singh and Kuldip Singh and one daughter namely Kamaljit Kaur. His daughter has studied up to 6th class and he along with his children was residing in his house No. 767, Prem Nagar, Ghumar Mandi. His house is said to be double storied. He used to reside on the ground floor along with his children. Two rooms of upper portion were given on rent. In the upper portion, Brij Mohan was residing along with his family members. Family of Brij Mohan consisted of his mother, brother and children. Brij Mohan has three sons and one daughter. Daughter of Brij Mohan was married. Eldest son of Brij Mohan, Som Nath was working as accountant. Son of the complainant, Kulwant Singh also used to go to Dholewal to do the work of accounts. Complainant used to go to do the work of polish of grinder and his other son used to go to Dashmesh Nagar to do the work of lathe. Complainant stated that in the evening, they used to return to the house and 2-3 days ago his daughter Kamaljit Kaur was looking sad. On asking, she disclosed that from the last 2-3 months Som Nath, who was son of the tenant on the first floor, has committed bad work with her for 5-6 times and he had pressurized her not to narrate this fact to her father and threat of killing was also given. It is stated that complainant became nervous and then discussed the mater with Lakshmi Narayan and Jang Bahadur Bindra and then came at police post to give the information.

(3.) PW -3, Dr.Kulwant Singh examined Som Nath accused and declared him to be fit for sexual intercourse. PW-4 Harminder Singh is a draftsman and prepared scaled site plan (Ex.PC). He stated that along the house there were shops. PW-5 ASI Dilbag Singh had taken the prosecutrix Kamaljit Kaur to Civil Hospital for medical examination. PW-6 Dr. Jagdish Kaur examined Kamaljit Kaur and given her age as 15-1/2 years. She found no external or internal injury on the person of Kamaljit Kaur. On local examination, hymen of the prosecutrix was torn and healed. Her vagina admitted two fingers and her urine for pregnancy test was found positive and she was found pregnant. She stated that age of the prosecutrix was mentioned on the MLR according to her own version. PW-7 Karamdeep Singh is Principal of Deep High School. He proved the school record, as per which the date of birth of the prosecutrix was given as 30th December, 1978. Karamdeep Singh was thoroughly cross-examined. He admitted that he had changed his name. He was cross-examined regarding authenticity of the certificate and he said that record is not available as the same has been destroyed in the floods. PW-8 SI Gurmukh Singh is the investigating officer. He admitted in cross-examination that he has tried to see the municipal record regarding the birth of the girl. He stated that school certificate (Ex.PW7/A) was not produced before him. Later he stated that the complainant had produced the same. He admitted that he had not interrogated the person, who had issued the certificate.