STATE OF H.P. Vs. GAPPA @ BAL KISHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) STATE has appealed against the judgment, dated 18th October, 1997, of learned Sessions Court, whereby respondents, who were charged with and tried for offences, under Sections 376 and 120 -B of the Indian Penal Code, have been acquitted.

(2.) CASE of the prosecution, as it emerges from the evidence led by the prosecution, may be stated thus. Prosecutrix, examined as PW -2, was 21 years of age at the relevant time. She lived with her mother in a village in District Una. They had a cattle -shed, which caved -in during the rainy season. They started tethering their buffalo in the cattle -shed of Hoshiar Singh, in village Kolka. Early in the morning, the prosecutrix used to go to the cattle -shed of said Hoshiar Singh to milch the buffalo.

(3.) AFTER the crime was committed, the prosecutrix went to the cattle -shed of Hoshiar Singh in village Kolka. Hoshiar Singhs wife, PW -7 Rachna, was there. Prosecutrix requested her to milch the buffalo for her and to deliver the milk at her place. PW -7 Rachna, after milching the buffalo, carried the milk to the house of the prosecutrix. On enquiry by the mother of the prosecutrix, namely PW -1 Roshni Devi, as to why the prosecutrix herself had not come, PW -7 Rachna told that the prosecutrix was looking frightened and that she told her that some boys were committing mischief with her and so she had not come to deliver the milk.