VIPIN KUMAR Vs. STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) APPELLANT has filed this appeal from District Jail, Dharamsala, where he is presently lodged to serve out the sentence awarded on his conviction for offences, under sections 452, 376 and 506 IPC, by the Sessions Court, vide judgment dated 16.1.2008. The appeal is directed against the said judgment.

(2.) CASE of the prosecution, as per evidence on record, may be stated thus. Appellant is a resident of village Andrala Damtal. Prosecutrix also lives in that village. She is a widow and was aged 42 years at the time of occurrence. She has two daughters, both of whom are married and two sons, who live at different places. On 1.2.2007, around 4 AM, when she was asleep in her house all alone, appellant entered her house and committed rape on her. In the course of committing of rape, he gave tooth bites on her shoulders and neck etc. Prosecutrix raised alarm, but nobody came to her rescue, as no house is situated nearby. After committing the offence of rape, appellant threatened the deceased that in case she reported the matter to the police she would be done to death. Appellant then left the house of the prosecutrix. Soon thereafter the prosecutrix went to the house of PW -8 Sonu, which is at a distance of 40 -50 metres from the house of the prosecutrix, and informed her about the incident. Parents of said Sonu were also there. PW -8 Sonu took the prosecutrix to Police Post, Damtal, where she lodged the report. Her report was entered in the Rojnamcha, vide entry No.25, copy Ext. DA. On the basis of this entry in the Rojnamcha, case was formally registered at Police Station Indora, vide FIR Ext. PW5/A. Prosecutrix was got medically examined. Following injures were found on her person, by PW -3 Dr. Suman Sexena :

(3.) DURING the course of trial, suggestions were thrown to the prosecution witnesses, including the prosecutrix and PW -8 Sonu, that when the appellant passed in front of the house of the prosecutrix, early in the morning, around 4 A.M, he saw PW -8 Sonu coming out of the house of the prosecutrix and when he raised alarm, he was caught hold of by the prosecutrix and PW -8 Sonu and beaten up. However, while examined, under Section 313 Cr. P.C, the appellant not only did not take such a plea, but even denied that he knew the prosecutrix or had even seen her, prior to her entering the witness box as a witness against him, in the present case.