JUDGMENT :

1. This appeal was instituted in September, 2001 to assail the judgment dated 10.08.2001 of the Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) in Sessions Case No.257/1996 and the order on sentence dated 31.08.2001 passed in its wake whereby the appellant was held guilty and convicted on the charge for the offence punishable under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC), he having been awarded rigorous imprisonment for ten years with fine of Rs.5,000/- - in default further simple imprisonment for three months, with benefit of set off under Section 428 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Cr.P.C.).

2. The appeal has come up for final adjudication before this court seventeen long years after it was presented. During the interregnum, the appellant died (on 16.02.2018). On her application (Crl.M.A.33211/2018) his widow Anita Beri was permitted, by order dated 28.09.2018, to prosecute the appeal further in terms of proviso to sub-Section (2) of Section 394 Cr.P.C.

3. The record of the appeal shows that the trial court record was requisitioned and placed before the court. The appeal, however, was admitted and put in the list of „Regulars? the sentence having been suspended by order