IMPORTANT POINT
The truthfulness of the victim's testimony and the presence of corroboration in the circumstances following the incident are crucial in cases of sexual abuse, especially involving minors.

JUDGMENT

Sanjib Banerjee, CJ. - This appeal brings to the fore the plight of minor victims who are sexually abused and the shoddy investigation that is undertaken as a result whereof the victim is virtually put on trial.

2. In the present case, a 13-year-old girl who was under the care of a woman and her husband ran away to a neighbour and was found by the neighbour in a distressed state whereupon the neighbour took the girl to the neighbour's daughter and, despite the entreaties of the neighbour and the neighbour's daughter, the girl refused to return to the house of her foster parents or even narrate the details of how she may have been mistreated at her foster parents' place for her not to want to return there. It was only after several weeks that the girl felt comfortable and she opened up and indicated that she had been raped by her foster father, whereupon the relevant neighbour's daughter lodged a first information report and took the pains to carry the girl to the women's cell of the police in Jowai where the girl was kept under the custody of the State.

3. According to the victim, she was raped by her foster father on July 4, 2013. The FIR was lodged at Umkiang Police Station on August 5, 2013. There was no use of her clothes or apparel being seized at that stage, since considerable time had elapsed. The medical examination conducted on the victim did not find any injuries, but reported that her hymen was found to be torn.

4. It further appears from the evidence adduced before the trial court that the victim's father had allowed the victim to live with a lady and her family in the hope that she would be better cared for as the father had six children from his deceased wife and was engaged in grazing cattle and did not have the means to support so many children. According to the victim's testimony in course of the trial, she was ill-treated by her foster parents and made to work in their bakery. Though there were questions put to the victim in course of her cross-examination as to whether she was given food or shelter by her foster parents, it clearly came through that the victim was not treated well. However, the general ill-treatment of the victim may have no impact on the accusation levelled against the appellant herein.

5. As to the specific incident of July 4, 2013, the victim indicated that she was washing clothes when her foster father was drinking and the foster father asked the victim to come into the room and give him a body massage. Thereafter, the foster father asked her to close the door and come to him whereupon, according to the victim, the foster father raped the victim. The victim was clear in her description of the incident and considering the age of the victim and the fact that she barely knew how to write her name, the description of the incident comes through as natural and truthful. Apart from the fact that she had not been treated too kindly by her foster parents, there was no motive that she had to falsely implicate her foster father.

6. The victim claimed that after the incident the foster father gave her a bath and, thereafter, she slipped out and hid at the relevant neighbour's place. There are some discrepancies in whether the neighbour actually discovered her hiding under a verandah or the victim came knocking at her door and certain other anomalies as to how the victim and the neighbour went to the neighbour's daughter. However, what rings true is that the victim and the relevant neighbour reached the neighbour's daughter and the victim spent a considerable period of several weeks with the neighbour's daughter. The neighbour's daughter, in course of her oral evidence at the trial, indicated that she had tried to ascertain the reason why the victim was unwilling to return to her foster parents, but it is evident that she took pity on her plight and allowed her to remain with her. It was only upon the victim narrating that she had been raped by her foster father that the concerned neighbour's daug