IMPORTANT POINT
Injury on body of person of victim of rape is not sine-qua non to prove a charge of rape.

JUDGMENT

S.B. Sinha, J.-The appellants herein have been found guilty of commission of offence under Section 376(2)(g) of Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years as also imposition of a fine of Rs. 10,000/-.

2. On 31.10.1993, father of PW1 and PW6, her brother had gone to cultivate their agriculture land. Around 11.30 a.m. when PW 1 was attending to her household works and nobody was at home, the appellants came to the house and asked her about the availability of a spray pump. She told the appellants that she did not have any. A little later again the appellants approached her and asked for water whereupon she gave them water for drinking. After some time again the appellants went to her and asked her to give the cycle pump whereupon she told them that she did not have any cycle pump, whereafter they went away. Around 12.30, PW 1 went to a nearby nala to fetch water for the purpose of washing clothes. While she was returning from the canal, both the accused persons came and took her forcibly to the cotton fields by gagging her mouth and committed forcible sexual intercourse with her against her consent. She was unable to cry as the cloth used was put in her mouth. Later, however, she removed the cloth put in her mouth and cried aloud. Hearing her cries, her father and her brother came running to the spot and found the accused persons running away at a distance. Her father made an attempt to apprehend them, but they made good their escape. He also approached one Mahantesh Patil PW 19 who is an influential person of the village and requested him to see that something is done in this regard. PW 19 promised him that he will send for the accused and a panchayat will be held. The father of the prosecutrix, thereafter, informed the factum of commission of the offence to a number of persons including PW 3 Krishna Veni, PW 3 Krishna Murthy and PW 14 Sadashiva Rao. All of them gathered in the hut of PW 1 and made enquiries whereupon she narrated the acts committed by the accused persons. After 4 days of the incident the father of the prosecutrix lodged and First Information Report before the Sirwar Police Station.

3. Both the Courts below found the appellants guilty of commission of the said offence.

4. The principal ground urged by the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the appellants are that:

(i) the identification of the appellants in the Court for the first time by the prosecutrix without a prior Test Identification Parade having been held, the judgment of sentence must be held to be bad in law;

(ii) having regard to the fact that the place of occurrence being an agricultural field and the stuff of the agricultural produce was found to be as high as 5 feet to 6 feet, the absence of injury on her person is not probable;

(iii) in view of the medical evidence, no finding as regard commission of the offence can be held to have been established.

5. The prosecution in support of its case has examined as many as 26 witnesses. The prosecutrix Malleshwari examined herself as P.W. 1. She in her evidence detailed the circumstance in which the offence is said to have been committed. She also disclosed enough materials to show that she had the occasion to see the accused persons at least on three occasions almost immediately prior to the commission of offence and also when she was intercepted and forcibly committed sexual assault on her. It is further borne out from records that immediately upon hearing her cries when the appellants allegedly took to heels, her brother P.W. 6 Rambabu saw the appellants running away from the spot. The other witnesses including the father of the prosecutrix, the other labourers who were working in the field i.e. Gobindamma w/o Malappa, resident of Athnoor Village, Kabir Jayamma w/o Gangappa Malad, Laxmi w/o Amaresh Malad, Nagaraj s/o Gangappa Malad, Viresh s/o Gangappa Malad, Subamma w/o Rahiman Choudhary of Solapur, Ramjan