S.R. Dongaonkar, J.

1. Challenge of the appellant State in this appeal is to the judgment of the learned Sessions Judge, Buldana, in Criminal Appeal No. 9/1990, by which he allowed the appeal preferred by the respondents who were held guilty by the Assistant Sessions Judge, Buldana, for the offences punishable under Section 376 and 354 r/w Section 34 of Indian Penal Code, each of them being sentenced to suffer R.I. for 7 years and to pay fine of Rs. 1000/- each, in default R.I. for 6 months, in Sessions Case No. 61/1988, and acquitted them of the charge.

2. The prosecution case in nutshell is that, prosecutrix PW-5 Ku. Savita d/o Narhari Jaware is the resident of village Antri. She has a sister by name Manda, PW-8. She has a maternal aunt by name Sou. Kasturabai w/o Mukinda Jaware PW-6. Police Patil of the said village is PW-7 Ganpat Devman Mahajan. On the day of incident i.e. on 12.11.1987, prosecutrix Ku. Savita, was asked to go to the field of her father at Antri to protect the crops. At that time she was aged about 16 years. The time was about 7 a.m. Her father had gone to village Motala. Her mother had gone to the other field. Prosecutrix went to the said field known a