STATE OF RAJASTHAN Vs. BHANWAR LAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AGGRIEVED by the judgment dated 17.01.2008, passed by the Special Judge, SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Cases, Baran, whereby the learned Judge has acquitted the accused-respondent for offences under Sections 354, 456 IPC and for offence under Section 3(1)(x) SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 ('the Act', for short), the State has filed this criminal leave to appeal before this Court.

(2.) MS. Alka Bhatnagar, the learned Public Prosecutor, has vehemently contended that the learned Judge has erred in acquitting the accused-respondent on hyper technical grounds such as delay in lodging of the FIR, the non-reporting of the incident by the prosecutrix (PW-1) to her other relatives and neighbors, and on the ground that there are contradictions between the testimonies of the prosecutrix (PW-1), her daughter, Vidya, (PW-2) and her husband, Ramesh (PW-3). According to the learned Public Prosecutor, the prosecution has presented a consistent story mentioned in the FIR, and narrated by the prosecutrix (PW-1) and her daughter, Vidya (PW-2). The testimonies of prosecutrix (PW-1) and Vidya (PW-2) has further been corroborated by the testimony of Ramesh (PW-3). Thus, sufficient evidence does exist to convict the accused-respondent of the aforementioned offences.

(3.) EVEN Vidya (PW-2) does not inspire confidence as a witness. For, she claims that she had told various facts to the Police. Yet, those facts do not find any mention in her statement under Section 161 Cr.P.C. Thus, it is unlikely that those facts were ever mentioned; the mentioning of these facts, during the course of trial, seems to be a tutored. Moreover, on the one hand, Ramesh (PW-3) admits that Bhanwar Lal, the accused-respondent, was a frequent visitor to their house, yet on the other hand, Vidya (PW-2) claims that Bhanwar Lal was stranger to her. She further claims that it is her father who had told her the name of Bhanwarlal. It would be highly unlikely that a child would not know the name of a person, who is the frequent visitor to the family.