STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH Vs. BALDEV @ DEV

JUDGEMENT

(1.) STATE is aggrieved by the judgment of Sessions Court, whereby respondent Baldev alias Dev, who at the time of the commission of offence was a lad of 14 years, has been acquitted of the charge of rape, under Section 376 IPC, by setting aside the judgment of Children Court of Himachal Pradesh at Una, by which he was convicted of the offence, under Section 376 IPC and ordered to be kept in Special Home at Una, for a period of three years, as per provision of Section 21(1)(d)(i) of the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986.

(2.) RESPONDENT was initially challaned in the Court of Judicial Magistrate, Mandi, for allegedly committing the offence of rape on a girl of 6 -7 years. The Magistrate committed the case to the Sessions Court. Additional Sessions Judge to whom the case was assigned framed the charge and recorded the evidence of the prosecution. When the statement of the respondent was being recorded, it came to notice that he was a juvenile. So, the matter was sent to the Children Court of Himachal Pradesh at Una, which alone had the jurisdiction in the matter, in view of the provisions of theJuvenile Justice Act, 1986.

(3.) CHILDREN Court found the respondent guilty of the offence of rape. Sessions Judge, in appeal, has acquitted him holding that the prosecutrix is contradicted in material particulars by the statement, which she made in the Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Mandi. The Sessions Judge also observed that the prosecutrix appeared to have been tutored, by her mother, to make the statement. Also, it has been observed by the Sessions Court that there was enmity between the fathers of the prosecutrix and the respondent and that appeared to be the motive for false implication of the respondent.