JUDGMENT

Deepak Verma, J.—

1. Appellants, two in number, were charged and prosecuted for commission of offence under Section 376(2)(g) of the Indian Penal Code (for short, ‘IPC’) for having committed rape on prosecutrix at about 7.00 p.m. on 23rd July 1983 by 5th Additional Sessions Judge, Begusarai in Sessions Trial No.94 of 1998 decided on 26th September 1991, who found them guilty and awarded four years jail sentence to each one of them. The said judgment of the learned Sessions Judge was subject-matter of challenge at the instance of the appellants in the High Court of Patna by filing Criminal Appeal No.360 of 1991 decided on 17th December 2002. The appeal of the accused-appellants has been dismissed and the conviction of the appellants under Section 376(2)(g) of IPC has been upheld and sentence of four years awarded by Trial Judge has also been affirmed. Hence, this appeal. Crl.A.No.971/03

2. The prosecution case, in short, is as under : On 23th July 1983 at about 7.00 p.m., P.W.3-prosecutrix was returning home along with Shiela Devi, her sister-in-law, after giving fodder to cattle. After they had proceeded few steps from the place, Sohan Singh aged 19 years and his brother Mohan Singh aged about 22 years waylaid them. Mohan Singh confronted prosecutrix whereas Sohan Singh caught hold of Shiela Devi. They threatened them on the point of pistol not to raise any alarm, otherwise they would be met with dire consequences. Mohan Singh got in full grip of prosecutrix and forcibly took her to the nearby maize field. There, he committed offence of rape on the prosecutrix. Subsequently, Sohan Singh also repeated the crime of sexual assault upon her. In the meantime, on alarm being raised, P.W.2 - husband of prosecutrix came. He was assaulted by both of them, with the butt of the pistol. He sustained injuries. Thereafter, some other villagers came on the spot. Obviously, both the accused fled away from the place of occurrence.

3. The prosecution case was based on fard bayan of P.W.3-prosecutrix.

4. P.W.3-prosecutrix did not lodge an FIR immediately. The same was lodged on 24th July 1983 at about 8.30 in the morning. Reasons have been assigned by her as to why she was not able to lodge the FIR immediately, which have been found by both the courts below to be reasonable and plausible.

5. P.W.1- Shiela Devi has deposed that incident had taken place about eight years back on one Saturday evening. On the said date, she, along with Crl.A.No.971/03 prosecutrix was returning home. When both of them reached maize field of Garif Singh, Sohan Singh took out his pistol and pointed it towards them. Other accused Mohan Singh dragged prosecutrix in the nearby field and committed rape. After coming out from the field, the other brother also went to commit the same but on commotion being raised, husband of prosecutrix, viz., Ram Prakash appeared. Ram Prakash was assaulted by both the accused and thereafter they ran away from there. Both the accused were identified by P.W.1. Even though she was cross-examined at length by the learned counsel appearing for the appellants but veracity of her evidence could not be doubted.

6. The evidence of P.W.2-Ram Prakash also reflects that his wife was raped about 7-8 years back on an evening by the appellants. He was at home at that time. On hearing the alarm of Shiela Devi, he went to the spot where he found that his wife was coming from the field towards its boundary. Her clothes were torn. He further deposed that when he reached the spot, both the appellants – Mohan Singh and Sohan Singh - started assaulting him. He had also sustained injury on account of blow of the butt of the revolver/pistol. His wife then informed that they had committed offence of rape. In the meanwhile, on account of commotion, several other persons also reached the spot. In his cross – examination, he has admitted that they belong to low caste and several persons had gathered after the incident to decide the future course of acti