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TMI Blog1991 (7) TMI 374X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t 7.p.m. while the victim girl Srimanthini Samal (P.W. 2) was going to the house of Rama Samal, for study, the appellant Gagan informed her that the other appellant Prafulla and others had tied her tutor Rabi Babu in a nearby mango grove and her father was present there. Having believed the version of the appellant Gagan, her agnatic uncle, she accompanied him and ultimately the appellants forcibly took her to a lonely house in hills where she was made to sit on a chair and the appellant Gagan forcibly thrushed in her mouth a liquor bottle and she was made to drink the liquor. Thereafter both the appellants after having undressed her committed sexual assault on her. Then she was brought to expression highway from where she was bodily lifted ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... defence pleas, and found that the accused appellants committed rape on the victim girl without her consent relying on the provisions of Section 114(A) of the Evidence Act, and convicted them under section 376(2)(g) I.P.C. and sentenced each of the accused appellants to rigorous imprisonment for three years considering the young age of the appellants. The Assistant Sessions Judge, however, acquitted the appellants from the charge under section 366 I.P.C. as the victim girl was more than 16 years of age at the time of occurrence. Against this judgment and order of conviction the appellants filed an appeal being Criminal Appeal No. 153 of 1984 in the Court of First Additional Sessions Judge, Cuttack. The Additional Sessions Judge considered t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... evant night the she, with the help of P.W. 7 had taken shelter in the house of P.W. 8 P.W. 6 who the driver of the truck No. ORG-4839 also stated in his evidence that the accused persons and two others took the victim girl and left her in the truck. P.W. 6 further admitted that as he stopped the truck at village Ambura for unloading the boulders, the girl had stealthily left his truck and inspite of his searching her, he could not trace her. This fully supports the version of P.W. 2 that she left the truck and concealed herself near a fence in darkness. The learned Judge, therefore, held "Hence, on a careful scrutiny of the evidences of the hostile witnesses P.Ws. 6 and 8 it is seen that even they corroborate the evidence of the victim ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ese and similar factors, the victims and their relatives are not too keen to bring the culprit to book. And when in the face of these factors the crime is brought to light there is a built-in assurance that the charge is genuine rather than fabricated." The above observation has been made by this Court relying on the earlier observations made by this Court in Rameshwar v. The State of Rajasthan, [1982] SCR 377 with regard to corroboration of girl's testimony and version. Vivian Bose, J, who spoke for the Court observed as follows: "The rule, which according to the case has hardened into one of law, is not that corroboration is essential before there can be a conviction but that the necessity of corroboration, as a matter of p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... xual intercourse apart from the legal presumption that follows from the provisions of Section 114(A) of the Evidence Act. The learned counsel on behalf of the appellants further tried to argue on the basis of some minor discrepancies in the evidences of P.W. 2 that the prosecution case was a false one and it has been foisted on the appellants due to enmity and also due to accused Prafulla, one of the appellants, having disagreed to marry the victim girl. The courts below have clearly found that the defence case was not at all sub-stantiated by any cogent evidence. So this contention is not at all tenable. It is apropos to mention here the observation made by this Court in the case of State of Orissa v. Nakula Sahu and Ors., AIR 1979 SC 663 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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