MANOHAR LAL Vs. STATE OF H.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) APPELLANT is aggrieved by the judgment of the Sessions Court whereby he has been convicted of an offence punishable under Section 376 IPC and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for ten years and to pay a fine of Rs.5,000/-, in default of payment of fine to undergo simple imprisonment for a further period of one year.

(2.) AS per the prosecution, appellant committed rape on a minor girl (aged about 14 years) on 26th June, 2004. The girl was mentally retarded to the extent of 75 per cent. The incident took place when the girl had gone alongwith her siblings to attend marriage of her Chacha (father's brother). The appellant allegedly took her from the site of the marriage to the fields where he committed rape on her. The prosecutrix spent the night at her Chacha's place and the next morning she went to her own house. On 29th June, 2004, two nephews of the mother of the prosecutrix informed her (the mother of the prosecutrix) about the incident. The mother of the prosecutrix then confronted the prosecutrix with what she was told by her two nephews, named Rinku and Bindu. The prosecutrix then told her mother that she had been raped by the appellant on the night she had been to her Chacha's place in connection with his marriage.

(3.) THE above stated position when seen in the light of the fact that the matter was reported to the Police on 29th June, 2004 or say three days after the alleged occurrence, makes the prosecution version all the more doubtful.