( 1 ) THIS appeal is directed against the Judgment of the Special Judge for trial of cases under Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Mahaboobnagar rendered in S. C. No. 1/1991 under which the appellant-accused has been convicted for the offence under Section 376, IPC and sentenced to undergo R. I. for three years and to pay a fine of Rs. 500. 00 in default of payment of fine to suffer R. I. for three months. The appellant has been acquitted of the charge under Section 3 (1) (xii) of S. C. and S. T. (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

( 2 ) THE facts relating to this appeal may be stated briefly as follows :-THE victim Chunarker Radha is the daughter of one Mangaiah resident of Chandravalli and she belongs to Scheduled Caste. The accused is a resident of Dhanoor and was a Supervisor-cum-Contractor in M/s. B. G. Shirke and Company Limited, C. C. C. Naspoor. The victim was said to be a minor girl of 14 years. Due to financial problems of the family after the death of her father, she went to C. C. C. Naspoor and worked on daily wages as a cooli under the control of the accused. She stayed with her elder sister at Naspoor during May, 198 9/07/1989. During this period the accused by virtue of his position as a Supervisor-cum-Contractor who could provide daily work to the victim and to her brother-in-law Jangama Jogaiah established an affair with the victim. It is stated that the accused promised to marry her and provide her with daily work. Thus he persuaded the victim to have sexual intercourse with him. After two months in 1989, the victim returned to her village and stayed with her mother, the accused visited her village frequently and on the pretext of securing work for her stayed in the house of the victim PW-1 and continued his sexual relations with her. It is stated that the victim became pregnant. During 1990-91 the victim had taken admission in Z. P. P. Secondary School, Kagaznagar to continue her studies and was admitted in Government Scheduled Caste Girls Hostel, Kagaznagar and was staying in the hostel. During that period she was found to be pregnant. The police Kagaznagar was informed of it. On the complaint of PW-1, the victim, the C. I. of police registered a case in Cr. No. 14/90 under Section 376, IPC, issued F. I. R. and took up investigation. Subsequently, charge-sheet was filed under Section 376, IPC and for an offence under Section 3 (1) (xii) of S. C. and S. T. (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 as the victim belonged to scheduled caste.

( 3 ) IN support of the case of the prosecution, the victim Radha has been examined as PW-1, her father Chunarker Babu has been examined as PW-2, the brother-in-law of the victim Jangama Jogaiah has been examined as PW-3. Durgam Shivaram, a resident of Chandravalli Village to which PWs-1 and 2 belong has been examined as PW-4, PW-5, the Head Mistress of Junior College, Kagaznagar where the victim studied has been examined to prove the date of birth certificate of PW-1 marked as Ex P-2. PW-6 Razia Sulthana is the matron of the Scheduled Caste Hostel where PW-1 stayed from 26-7-90 for a period of six days. PW-7 Dr. K. Sankarnarayana examined PW-1 and after physical, dental and radiological examination he gave certificate of age of the victim under Ex. P-3. The accused denied the allegations against him. On behalf of the accused DW-1 has been examined.

( 4 ) PW-1 in her evidence stated that when she was studying 8th class in Vijayanagaram her father expired. She stopped her studies and returned to her native place Chandravalli. Her sister Jangama Kamala and her husband PW-3 Jangama Jogaiah were working as labourers in Naspoor area. She also went and joined them to work as a labourer. While she was attending to the work in a stone crushing machine, she got acquainted with the accused who was the Supervisor-cum-Contractor and who used to pay their wages every week. She worked there for two months, during that period, the accused ind