C. Nagappan, J.

1. The appellant-Balaraman is the sole accused in Special Sessions Case No.1 of 2004 on the file of Principal Sessions Judge, Vellore and he has preferred this appeal challenging the conviction and sentence imposed on him by judgment dated 11. 2004 in the case. For the sake of convenience, in this Judgment, the appellant will be referred to as accused.

2. Charges under Sections 376 IPC and Section 3(2)(v) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 were framed against the accused. The learned Principal Sessions Judge found the accused guilty under Section 376 IPC read with Section 3(2)(v) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and convicted and sentenced him to undergo Life Imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs.10,000/-, in default, to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment for six months.

3. To prove the charges, the prosecution examined P.Ws.1 to 16 and marked Exs.P1 to P19 and M.Os.1 to 7.

4. The case of the prosecution, as could be discerned from oral and documentary evidence, can be briefly summarised as follows.

P.W.1-Chinnakulandai and P.W.3-Sagunthala are the parents of P.W