JUDGMENT

The appellant was convicted for offence punishable u/S. 376 of the Indian Penal Code and was reducedly sentenced by the High Court to four years rigorous imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/-, out of which Rs. 4,000/- was ordered to be paid as compensation to the prosecutrix.

2. The prosecutrix, P.W. 1, undeniably was of consenting age, she being sixteen or seventeen years on the date of the occurrence. The prosecutrix and the accused-appellant were neighbours and belonged to the same Harijan community. She was a constant visitor to the house of P.W. 5. On the day of the occurrence, P.W. 5 apparently, invited her to her house. At about 2 p.m. that day when she went to the house of P.W. 5, the latter was found present there. The appellant however suddenly came there, closed her mouth, took her inside, smothered kisses on her face, and then lay her on the ground and committed rape on her. The act did not leave any tell-tale circumstantial evidence from which inference of rape could be deduced inasmuch as her clothes were intact, her glass bangles were unbroken and no injury of any sort was found on her outward person. According to P.W. 8, a neighbour, he had seen the p