Judgment

PUNCHHI, JJ

( 1 ) THESE two appeals by special leave, one by the State of Karnataka and the other by the victim of the crime, are directed against the judgment and order of the High court of Karnataka in Criminal Appeal No. 157 of 1986 decided on 20/11/1987 recording an order of acquittal in favour of the accused-respondents.

( 2 ) KUM. Narayanamma is the prosecutrix. She was about 14 years of age on the date of the commission of the offence. She is illiterate and used to eke out a living, as did her other family members, by working as an agricultural labourer (in common parlance a "coolie" ). On 3/10/1983 at about 3. 30 p. m. she had gone towards the fields to cut some grass for her cattle, and while she was returning at about 5. 00 p. m. with a basket full of grass, she found accused I, Muniyappa, aged about 23 years standing close to a "honge" tree on the footpath. When she got close to him, he caught her by the hands, speaking to her suggestively with an evil design. Accused 2 Venkataswamy aged about 17 years emerged from a close-by fence and caught her by the legs. Both of them bodily lifted the prosecutrix by her hands and legs and took her a few feet away in the field