Supreme Court: The bench of Abhay Manohar Sapre and Dinesh Maheshwari, JJ acquitted a man convicted for the offence of rape and said that the Session Court and the Patna High Court were not justified in convicting the appellant for an offence punishable under Section 376 IPC and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years.
Factual Background:
Prosecutrix alleged that the appellant, December 14, 1997, entered into her house when she was alone and threatened her by showing pistol and committed rape on her. The prosecution examined, prosecutrix’s husband and a neighbour, apart from examining the prosecutrix herself. Both the Courts below based their conclusions on the evidence of the aforementioned 3 witnesses.
Grounds for acquittal:
- the complainant was not examined by the Doctor after the alleged incident.
- in absence of any medical examination done, the prosecution did not examine any doctor in the trial in support of their case;
- it was not disputed that similar type of complaints were being made in past by the complainant ag and such complaints were later found false;
- it was also not disputed that there was enmity between the appellant and the husband of the prosecutrix, due to which their relations were not cordial;
- it had also come in evidence that the prosecutrix was in habit of implicating all the persons by making wild allegations of such nature against those with whom she or/and her husband were having any kind of disputes;
- there was no eye witness to the alleged incident and the one, who was cited as witness, was a chance witness on whose testimony, a charge of rape could not be established;
- so far as the husband of the complainant, is concerned, he admitted that he was away and returned to village the next day morning of the incident.
Ruling:
Noticing that there was no evidence adduced by the prosecution to prove the commission of the offence of rape by the appellant on the prosecutrix and the evidence adduced was not sufficient to prove the case of rape against the appellant, Court set the accused free.
[Ganga Prasad Mahto v. State of Bihar, 2019 SCC OnLine SC 417, decided on 26.03.2019]
