MD. RASHID KHAN Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SOLE appellant Md. Rashid Khan stands convicted for the offence under Sections 376 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to serve rigorous imprisonment for life on both counts, by the Vth Additional Sessions Judge, Dhanbad in Sessions Trial No. 350 of 1991.

(2.) BRIEF facts leading to this appeal are that Kamarjahan, aged 12 years, daughter of informant Abbas Khan (PW 8) went for tending her goats along with the appellant and one Bishnu in the afternoon of 12.3.1991 and did not return. According to the informant, she used to tend the goats in nearby woods regularly. As per this witness, in the afternoon of 12.3.1991, appellant and Bishnu came to his house and asked Kamarjahan to accompany them for tending goats. Further stated that Kamarjahan was not willing, but the appellants insisted and she left along with her goats in company of the Appellant. Thereafter, the informant went to see his wife admitted in hospital and came to learn in the evening that Kamarjahan has not returned. The informant along with his elder daughter started searching and tried to find her in nearby bushes but failed to locate Kamarjahan. Ultimately, her dead body was found hanging on the branch of a tree in Parotand forest with her duppatta.

(3.) THE present appeal has been preferred on the grounds that the prosecution story suffers from material contradictions. It is also asserted that there is no positive evidence on record that the deceased had accompanied the appellant in the afternoon of 12.3.1991. According to this memo of appeal, the earlier version of the occurrence has been suppressed. Learned Counsel for the appellant further submitted that in the fardbeyan, no averment was made against him nor any evidence is available that he was seen lastly going with the deceased. It has further been asserted that the circumstances used against him do not satisfy the test laid down by the Apex Court to come to conclusion that only the appellant might have committed the offence. There -lore, the appellant against whom consistent evidence is not available deserves to be acquitted.