JUDGMENT

ARIJIT PASAYAT, J.

Heard learned counsel for the parties.

2. Leave granted.

3. Though in SLP (Crl.) No.6796 of 2006, notice has not been issued, at the request of and with the consent of the parties, the same was taken up along with SLP (Crl.) No.1411 of 2007 where notice had been issued.

4. Challenge in these appeals is to the judgment of a learned Single Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Criminal Appeal No.698-SB/1999. The appellant- Bhupinder Singh (hereinafter referred to as the `accused) had filed the appeal before the High Court against the judgment dated 20.9.1999 passed by learned Additional Sessions Judge, Chandigarh, convicting him for offences punishable under Sections 376 and 417 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short `the Code). He was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years and to pay a fine of Rs.10,000/- with default stipulations for the first offence and rigorous imprisonment for nine months in respect of the second offence.

5. The prosecution version, as unfolded during trial, is as follows:

Complainant-Manjit Kaur filed a complaint stating that she was employed as Clerk in All Bank Employees Urban Salary Earners Thrift Credit Society Ltd. and worked as such till September, 1991. She was daily commuting from Naraingarh District Ambala, where her sister was residing. Accused-Bhupinder Singh was employed as Data Entry Operator in the State Bank of Patiala, Sector 17-C, Chandigarh. He used to come to her office and developed intimacy and then asked her to marry after disclosing himself as unmarried person. Accused-Bhupinder Singh insisted upon her to get married at the earliest in a Gurudwara through simple ceremony and said that permission from the parents can be taken later on and that thereafter marriage would be solemnized with great pomp and show. Then she agreed to the proposal of the accused.

6. Then on 4.12.1990, Manjit Kaur and Bhupinder Singh got solemnized their marriage in Gurudwara after exchanging garland before the holy Granth Sahib. At that time, one Sohan Singh, husband of her cousin sister Joginder Kaur was also present. Then she stayed with the accused in H.No.3166, Sector 22-C (Top Floor), Chandigarh, where accused was residing jointly with one J.P. Goel, who was working in the same bank. Then they had gone to Kasauli for honeymoon on 27.12.1990 and stayed in a hotel. Then her office was shifted from Sector 17 to Sector 42, Chandigarh. She and the accused shifted to H.No.1110, Sector 42-B, Chandigarh and stayed in a rented accommodation owned by one Pritam Singh. Even landlord had lodged a report in Police Station, Sector 36, Chandigarh, showing them as husband and wife and prior to that a form was duly filled by Bhupinder Singh and same was handed over to the landlord to establish the fact of their being husband and wife. Accused had also taken a loan of Rs.5000/- from a society at Panchkula in May 1991, where he had nominated her as his wife. She became pregnant. But accused got her aborted from Kaushal Nursing Home against her wishes. She had left the service in September 1991 under the pressure of the accused.

7. In the year 1992, accused-Bhupinder Singh was transferred from Chandigarh to Ropar and they shifted to Ropar and stayed in House No.111, Street No.8, Malhotra Colony, Ropar. They came back to Chandigarh again and started living in H.No.859, Sector 38, Chandigarh and accused-Bhupinder started going to Ropar daily from Chandigarh. She got re- employment in May 1993 in Punjab University, Chandigarh on daily wages as Clerk and visited H.No. C-146, Sector 14, Punjab University, Chandigarh, on the eve of Diwali in 1993. She again became pregnant in July 1993 and their relations remained cordial till March, 1994.

8. On 6.3.1994 when she had gone to Rose Garden, she met Devinder Kumar Bansal and Vinod Sharma, who were friends of her husband Bhupinder Singh. Those persons told her that accused-Bhupinder Singh was already married with one Gurinder Kaur a