STATE OF H.P. Vs. GIAN CHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD and gone through the record. Respondent was charged with and tried for offences punishable under Sections 458 and 376, I.P.C. by trial Court for allegedly gang raping the prosecutrix, after committing house tress pass. The respondent was alleged to be accompanied by an unknown and un -identified person, who too committed the rape. Trial Court has acquitted the respondent holding that the case of the prosecution does not stand established beyond reasonable doubt.

(2.) ALLEGATIONS on which the respondent was put on trial may be summed up thus : The prosecutrix, having been deserted by her husband, started living at her parental place in Village Nehar, District Bilaspur. She had two sons one aged about two years and the other aged one year. On 19.4.1991 around 8.45 p.m., when she was sleeping in one room with her younger son and her sister, Dharam Dei (PW -3) was sleeping with her elder son in the adjoining room, the respondent accompanied by an un -identified man allegedly entered her room through the stairs connecting the ground floor with the first floor, which are inside her room. The prosecutrix was asleep in a room in the ground floor. Respondent wand his said un -identified accomplice committed rape on the prosecutrix one after the other. Thereafter the respondent and his accomplice allegedly thrust a small sized bottle into the vagina of the prosecutrix. They then carried her out in the open outside the room and started giving beatings to her with a chopped piece of wood (Pacher). When the prosecutrix cried for help, her sister came out. She was slapped by the respondent. On hearing the cries, some neighbours of the prosecutrix including Babu Ram (PW -4), Durga (PW -5) and Smt. Shenkru (PW6) reached the spot. The respondent and his accomplice then ran away. Mater was reported to the Police by the prosecutrix on 22.4.1991. Police registered the case vide FIR Exhibit -PF. Prosecutrix was got medically examined. At the time of her examination, a piece of rough stone, measuring three inches in length, was found in her vagina which was taken into possession. Investigation revealed that on 21.4.1991, Smt. Hardei (PW7) visited the prosecutrix on coming to know that she had been having pain in her abdomen. She pressed the abdomen of the prosecutrix, upon which a bottle Exhibit P -7 came out from her vagina. The bottle, the piece of stone and the clothes of the prosecutrix were sent to the Chemical Examiner. Spermatozoa was found on her clothes. No spermatozoa was found on the bottle and stone and vaginal swab. The respondent was challaned. Trial Court charged him, as aforesaid, and on completion of trial acquitted him.

(3.) THE case of the prosecutrix, as per her testimony as also in the earliest version recorded in the FIR Exhibit -PF is that after the respondent and his accomplice committed the offence of gang rape, a bottle was thrust into her vagina which had been pressed out on 21.1.1991 by Smt. Hardei (PW7) but during the course of her medical examination, a piece of rough stone measuring three inches in length was also removed from her vagina. Prosecurix has not explained as to where did this piece of stone come from into her vagina. No injury on the walls of the vagina or any other parts of her vagina was noticed during the course of medico legal examination, even though there was a rough stone inside. None of the witnesses examined by the prosecution, including those who reached the spot immediately on hearing the cries of the prosecutrix and her sister, has stated that the prosecutrix complained that she had been raped by the respondent or his accomplice.