DHARMENDRA KUMAR Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE sole appellant Dharmendra Kumar was tried by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, 4th Court, Patna, in Sessions Trial No. 807/2000 for a charge u/s. 376 I.P.C. and by the judgment and order of conviction dated the 22nd day of September, 2004 was found guilty of committing the above offence and was directed to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment for life as also to pay a fine of Rs. 10,000/ -. The learned Judge directed, in case of non -payment of the fine of Rs. 10,000/ -, that the appellant shall suffer another term of rigorous imprisonment of one year.

(2.) The above judgment and order of conviction is appealed against through the present appeal. The prosecution story emanates from Ext. 3, the fardbeyan of P.W. 4 who happens to be the father of the victim and on which basis the F.I.R. of Digha P.S. Case No. 167 of 1999 under Ss. 376. and 342 of the I.P.C. was drawn up by P.W. No. 8, namely, S.I. Tarni Prasad Yadav. It is stated by the informant that his mother, suffering from Cancer, was advised saline dripping by a particular doctor named in the Fardbeyan and he remained busy in arranging the treatment on 10.11.99 in the night after he had returned from Patna. In the next morning, i.e., on 11.11.99, his wife P.W. 3 took him to the roof -top of his house and divulged to him that at about 6 p.m. in the previous evening the appellant had lured away the victim, daughter of P.W. 3 and P.W. 4, aged about eight years, on the pretext of being fed with sweets. Subsequently, the little girl returned and narrated to her mother that she was taken by the appellant to a house under construction in Fair Field Colony and was sexually assaulted.

(3.) THE informant stated in Ext. 3 that he, having learnt about the acts of the appellant, stated the facts to his cousin Indradeo ( P.W. 2), Sheo Nandan Paswan (not examined), Md. Shafique (P.W. 7) and others on which the appellant was called and questioned. It is stated that the appellant confessed to his guilt before the abovenamed persons and he was ostracised from the community by the Panchas who held the Panchayati in the evening on 11.11.99. The informant stated that he was still making up his mind about initiating a case when the police reached and recorded Ext. 3, the fardbeyan.