MADHU DAS Vs. STATE OF BIHAR (NOW JHARKHAND)

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal is directed against the judgment of conviction dated 9.8.1999 and corresponding sentence, passed by the 1st Additional Sessions Judge, Jamshedpur whereby the appellant was convicted for the offences under Section 376, IPC and Section 3 of the S.C. & S.T. (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for 7 years and 1 year respectively for the said offences.

(2.) FACTS of the case which was registered on the basis of the fardbeyan of the prosecutrix on 4.4.1997, is that about five months prior to the lodging of the FIR when the prosecutrix had gone to the river in the afternoon at about 2.00 p.m. for her. bath, present appellant, finding her alone, forcibly took her to a nearby secluded place near a brick kiln where he first made proposal to her for sexual relation, but on her refusal, he felled her down on the ground and committed rape on her. When she wanted to raise alarm, he gagged her mouth and later, under threats as well as by false promise of marrying her, he continued to exploit her sexually and as a result of which, she had conceived. When her pregnancy was delected about five months later, she reported the matter to her mother accusing the appellant as having caused her pregnancy. On being informed, her parents took her to the house of the appellant, but the appellant and his parents refused to allow her entry into their house or to have any marital relation with her. Thereafter, prosecutrix accompanied by her uncle Bhrigu Kalindi went to the police station where case was registered on the basis of the fardbeyan of the prosecutrix.

(3.) AS many as seven witnesses were examined at the trial by the prosecution, out of whom, one witness namely, Amit Kalindi (PW 5) was declared hostile on his failure to support the prosecution's case. Other witnesses on whose evidences prosecution had relied upon, are the prosecutrix (PW 4) herself and her parents as well as the doctor who had medically examined the prosecutrix.