The court ruled that corroborative evidence is essential for rape allegations, leading to acquittal on those charges while a conviction for assault was upheld based on credible evidence.

JUDGMENT :

Amitendra Kishore Prasad, J.

1. CRA No.1765/2019 :- This criminal appeal has been preferred by the appellant/accused under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 14.11.2019 passed in Special Criminal Case No. 282/2017 by the Special Judge (Atrocities), Raipur (C.G.), whereby the appellant has been convicted and sentenced as under:—

2. ACQA No.10/2020:- This acquittal appeal preferred by the victim arises out of the same judgment dated 14.11.2019 passed by the Special Judge (Atrocities), District Raipur (C.G.), in Special Criminal Case No. 282/2017, whereby the learned trial Court acquitted respondent No. 2/accused of the charges under Section 376(D) of the IPC and Section 3(2)(v) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (in short, “the Act, 1989”).

3.Since both the appeals arise out of the same judgment and are based on the same set of facts and evidence, they are being decided by this common judgment.

4.Case of the prosecution, in brief, is that on 13.06.2017, at about 5:00 PM, prosecutrix, a resident of Village Achholi, Police Station Urla, District Raipur, belonging to a Scheduled Caste, went near Sheetla Talab to answer the call of nature. It is alleged that at that time accused- Maheshwar Nishad @ Natwar reached there, caught hold of her, assaulted her, used criminal force upon her and committed sexual intercourse with her against her will. It is further alleged that accused threatened to kill her and caused injuries to her. After the incident, prosecutrix was taken home by her relatives and was later taken to the hospital, where her report was recorded. On the basis of the report of the prosecutrix, FIR (Ex.P-25) was registered against the accused- Maheshwar Nishad.

5.During the course of investigation, spot map was prepared vide Ex.P-5. After obtaining the consent of the prosecutrix and her parents, she was sent for medical examination, where PW-8 Dr. Snehlata Singh examined her and found no external injuries on her body; however, the prosecutrix complained of pain in her chest and head. PW-17 Dr. P. Chauhan also examined the prosecutrix on 22.07.2017 and found no injuries on her private parts. She did not give any definite opinion regarding recent sexual intercourse and gave MLC reports vide Exs.P-18 and P-26 respectively. Accused- Maheshwar Nishad was taken into custody vide Ex.P-30 and was sent for medical examination, where PW-7 Dr. P.K. Gupta examined him and opined that accused was capable of performing sexual intercourse and gave MLC report vide Ex.P-16. Vide Ex.P-3, clothes of the prosecutrix were seized. Vide Ex.P-6, caste certificate of the prosecutrix was seized. Vide Ex.P-19, underwear of accused- Maheshwar Nishad was seized. Seized articles were sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for chemical examination and as per the FSL report (Ex.P-33), no se