FACTUAL ASPECTS

1. The respondents in Criminal Appeal No.2567 of 2024 have been convicted by the High Court of Himachal Pradesh at Shimla by the impugned judgment and order dated 2nd March 2017 for the offence punishable under clause (g) of sub-section (2) of Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short, ‘the IPC’). They were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years and to pay a fine of Rs.50,000/- each. They were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months on default of payment of fine. The fine amount, if deposited, was ordered to be paid to the prosecutrix.

2. PW-5 is the prosecutrix. The alleged incident is of 8th July 1989. Initially, the accused were prosecuted for the offences punishable under Section 376, read with Section 34 of the IPC. Six accused were tried before the Sessions Court, namely, Raghubir Singh (Raghubir), Vijay Kumar (Vijay), Ravi Prakash (Ravi), Anil Kumar alias Bittu (Anil), Hari Ram (Hari) and Sunil Kumar (Sunil). The Trial Court acquitted the accused on the ground that in the absence of any corroborating evidence of any struggle on the part of the prosecutrix or any corroborating injury on the person of the accused,