In sexual assault cases, the uncorroborated testimony of a prosecutrix must be of 'sterling quality'—consistent, unassailable, and credible. If such evidence contains material contradictions or fails to inspire confidence, an appellate court will not interfere with an acquittal judgment that is otherwise based on a logical evaluation of facts.

JUDGMENT :

Pramod Kumar Srivastava, J.

1. Heard Sri Shiv Shankar Verma, learned counsel for the appellant and learned A.G.A. for the State.

2. The present appeal under Section 372 of Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (herein-after referred to as “CrPC”)/413 of Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (herein-after referred to as BNSS,2023) has been filed against the judgment and order dated 26.03.2026 passed by the court of Additional Session Judge, F.T.C. First, Ambedkar Nagar, in Sessions Trial No. 104 of 2023, State Vs. Amit Shahani, arising out of FIR No./Case Crime No. 65 of 2023, under Sections 342, 364, 366, 376, 506 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (herein-after referred as IPC), Police Station Zalalpur, District Ambedkar Nagar and charge-sheet filed under Sections 342, 366, 376 and 506 IPC, Police Station Zalalpur, District Ambedkar Nagar acquitting the opposite party No.2 from the charges under Sections 342, 366, 376 and 506 I.P.C.

3. Brief facts of the case are that on 23.01.2023, in the afternoon, the younger son of In @ Indrawati, daughter of Rambali, who lives next door to the victim had come to call her. Upon reaching there, Suman, wife of Kantraj, resident of the same village and aunt of Amit Shahani(accused) was also sitting with Indrawati and talking. When the appellant approached them, they said, ‘Let’s go towards the forest because my stomach is upset’.

All three of them went towards the forest, about 300 meters east of Indrawati’s house at approximately 3:00 PM. As they reached the path leading to the forest, Amit Shahani, son of Sant Ram and Sujeet Kumar, son of Ghanshu stepped out of a Bolero car. There were two other people sitting inside whom the appellant could not recognize. Indrawati and Suman said , 'See, we have brought her', after which they grabbed the victim and forced her into the car. When she tried to scream, Sujeet Kumar pressed the pistol against the victim’s chest and threatened to kill her and her family. Out of fear for her and her family’s life she remained silent.

The appellant was then taken to Akbarpur Railway Station where she was again threatened by Sujeet Kumar and Amit Shahani and forced to sit quietly in the train out of fear. At 8:00 PM the train arrived, and they boarded the train with her. In the morning, they took her to Delhi, and from there, on January 24, 2023, they took her to Kaithal, Chandigarh by bus. They arrived there at night and took her to a room where Vijay Kumar, also known as Havaldar (son of Purnmasi, resident of Sakalfiya, Police Station Katka, District Ambedkar Nagar), who is Amit’s uncle, also arrived. After threatening her and asking her to stay in the room for the safety of her and her family, Sujeet Kumar and Vijay Kumar left. Amit Shahani stayed in the room with the victim that night and raped her.

On the morning of January 25, 2023, Sujeet Kumar threatened the victim by saying that he was going home and the appellant should not create any drama or the consequences will be very bad after which in the evening Amit again raped the victim. In this manner, Vijay Kumar would come every morning, and both Vijay and Amit would lock the victim in the room and go somewhere and in the evening Amit would forcibly make sexual relationship with her. On January 31, 2023, both of them told the victim to sign a paper that had something written in english. When she refused, they beat her up and forced her to sign it and again threatened to ki