PADMA LOCHAN DAS Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CHALLENGE in this appeal by the appellants is made against the judgment of conviction dated 6. 5. 2000, whereby appellants were convicted by the trial Court for the offence under section 366-A of the I. P. C. and sentenced to undergo r. I. for five years. The appellant No. 2 Manoj das @ Manoj Kumar Das has been convicted also for the offence under section 376 of the i. P. C. and sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

(2.) CASE against the appellants was initiated on the basis of the F. I. R. lodged by the informant Guhi Ram Mahato (PW7) alleging therein that on 21. 2. 1998 at about 2. 00 p. m. his daughter Savita Kumari had gone to the house of her maternal uncle Santosh mahato situated within Adityapur Police station. The appellants visited the house of the girl's maternal uncle and on false representation that her father who had suffered road accident had sent them to fetch her. The appellants induced the girl to leave her maternal uncle's house and to accompany them. The girl was later recovered and on the basis of revelations made by her, the further case of the prosecution is that instead of taking her to her father's house situated at village Dindali, the appellants took her to Telco on a motorcycle where she was confined in a room over night and on the next morning, they along with the girl boarded a bus to Durgapur where they kept the girl for about a month and during this period, the appellant No. 2 Manoj Das had sexually abused her. He later brought the girl to jadugora where after observing a formal ceremony of marriage with the girl, the appellant no. 2 Manoj Das took her to his own house and continued to exploit her sexually. On the basis of the above information conveyed to him by his brother-in-law namely the maternal uncle of the girl, the informant lodged the F. I. R. at the Police Station on 22. 2. 1998.

(3.) WHILE denying the charges and pleading not guilty, the appellants in their defence, had contended that as a matter of fact, the girl was in love with Manoj Das (Appellant No. 2)and she had voluntarily accompanied him and had allowed herself to be sexually exploited by him with whom she had solemnized her marriage.