JUDGMENT

KRISHNA IYER, J. :— A rapist - if the concurrent findings of the courts below were correct- has chosen to seek special leave to challenge his crime and punishment, and his counsel has attacked the verdict of culpability as wholly unfounded. Indeed, it is redundant, and absent exceptional circumstances, out of bounds, for this Court, exercising its jurisdiction under Article 136, to launch upon an exploration and re-appreciation of the evidence, its strengths and weaknesses with a view to sit in judgment over the holdings of the High Court in affirmance of those of the trial Court.

2. Briefly, we will touch upon one or two circumstances without claiming to be exhaustive in any manner. One Shashi Bala of Ambala was sleeping, with her mother and other children, outside her house in hot July (1975). The petitioner, in the company of another (acquitted accused), carried her away under intimidation to a neighbouring godown belonging to one Tilak Raj (another acquitted accused) and in that secluded venue committed rape on the young woman. After subjecting her to these bestial acts of lust, Shashi Bala, who by then was nearly unconscious, was put back in her cot from where she had