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Serial No.02

Regular List

HIGH COURT OF MEGHALAYA

AT SHILLONG

Crl.A.No.7/2020 with

Crl.M.C.No.20/2020

Date of Order: 10.05.2022

Donboklang Ryntathiang Vs. State of Meghalaya & ors

Coram:

Hon’ble Mr. Justice Sanjib Banerjee, Chief Justice

Hon’ble Mr. Justice W. Diengdoh, Judge

Appearance:

For the Appellant

: Mr. H.L. Shangreiso, Sr.Adv with

Mr. A. Syiem, Adv

For the Respondents

: Mr. K. Khan, PP with

Mr. S. Sengupta, Addl.PP

i) Whether approved for reporting in

Yes/No

Law journals etc.:

ii) Whether approved for publication

in press:

Yes/No

JUDGMENT: (per the Hon’ble, the Chief Justice) (Oral)

The appellant has been convicted, inter alia, under Section 6 of

the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 and sentenced

to 20 years’ imprisonment. In addition, the appellant has been fined

Rs.50,000/-; and, in default of payment thereof, the appellant has to suffer

another year’s imprisonment.

2.

The victim in this case was about 13 years old at the time that the

initial act of sexual assault was alleged to have been committed by the

appellant. The victim asserted that she had been raped on at least three

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other occasions. There is a statement of the appellant recorded under

Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 wherein he,

apparently, confessed to having raped his minor step-daughter at least four

times and being the father of the girl-child that the victim delivered. It was

a premature delivery and the child survived barely over a week. However,

because of the tardy investigation that we are accustomed to in this

country, poor samples drawn led to an inconclusive DNA report.

3.

Two principal grounds have been urged on behalf of the

appellant: first, that he retracted the alleged confession at the trial, but the

trial court proceeded to convict him on the basis of the confession alone;

and, secondly, that the alleged victim’s statement did not sound true and

there was confusion as to the place or places of occurrence.

4.

There is no dispute that the victim was a minor. The matter came

to light only after September 17, 2013, at a time when the victim was

working as a maid in Nongstoin, when she experienced unbearable

abdominal pain, was taken to a medical facility and gave premature birth

to a girl- child. The victim’s mother was informed of the victim being

unwell whereupon the victim told her mother that it was her step-father

who was the father of her baby daughter and that her step-father had raped

her on several occasions. The first information report came to be lodged

on September 24, 2013 by a brother of the victim’s mother.

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5.

In between, after the victim informed her mother and others that

she had been raped by her step-father and the father of the child that she

delivered was her step-father and the time that the complaint came to be

made with the police, village meetings were held in the presence of the

elders of the two clans. It is the evidence that in course of such meetings,

the mother of the victim announced her decision to separate from the

appellant. It is also the evidence that immediately after one of the clan

meetings was over, the appellant herein confessed to having raped his step-

daughter on several occasions.

6.

It is in such light that the confessional statement of the appellant

has to be read. Such statement was made on September 25, 2013,

immediately upon the appellant being arrested and it is evident from

Exhibit-13, which is the record of the confession and the notings of the

Executive Magistrate, that, at least on paper, both the letter and spirit of

Section 164 of the Code were complied with. The appellant’s statement

reads as follows:

“My name is Donboklang Ryntathiang, son of (Lt) Shri Dwi

Nongsiej. I reside in Mawbri near Riang