'Prosecution Case Not Supported By Medical & Forensic Evidence': Patna HC Upholds Acquittal Of Accused Charged For Raping Minor

The Patna High Court today (Sept 3) upheld the acquittal of the accused who was charged with committing an offence of rape on the 14 years old female child after the prosecution case was not able to prove the accusations beyond the reasonable doubt.

It was the case of the prosecution that the accused had entered into the courtyard of the victim and forcibly took her to the room. When she raised her voice, her mouth was closed by him by putting his hand and he started committing rape upon her. It was only when the father of the victim heard the cry of the victim that he entered the room and saved the victim. In between this, when the accused tried to escape the place he was surrounded by the neighbours who caught him and was taken to police.

The trial court after appreciating the evidence on record and considering the submissions of the parties, passed the impugned judgment whereby the respondent No. 2/accused was acquitted of the charge, finding that the prosecution had failed to prove its case against respondent no.2 beyond all reasonable doubts. The Trial Court has found that the case of the prosecution is not supported by medical evidence and there are material contradictions in the statements of the prosecution witnesses, entitling the accused to the benefit of the doubt.

Following this, an appeal was preferred by the victim and the informant before the High Court.

Upon perusing the material evidence placed on record, the bench comprising Justices Ashutosh Kumar and Jitendra Kumar that the prosecution case was not supported by medical evidence, nor there was any forensic evidence on record in support of the allegation levelled against the accused/respondent no. 2.

“As per the medical evidence, there was no external injury found on the person of the victim which could have been caused due to dragging of the victim by the accused/respondent no. 2 while taking her into the room, nor is any medical finding in support of the allegation of rape. Neither any injury nor any spermatozoa was found in the private part of the victim. Moreover, there are material contradictions in the statements of the prosecution witnesses. As per the victim, there was a door in the room where occurrence had taken place, whereas as per the I.O., there was no door in the room.”, the Judgment authored by Justice Jitendra Kumar said.

Further, the Court found the contradiction in the version deposed by the victim and her father about her father entering the room.

“There are also contradictory statements regarding how father entered into the room where occurrence had taken place. As per the testimony of the father of the victim, he first broke the door open and entered into the room, whereas as per the victim, father had entered into her room silently without making any noise.”, the Court said.

Given the aforesaid, the Court held that the findings of acquittal by the trial court could not be interfered with by the Appellant unless the gross error was committed by the trial court while appreciating the evidence. Observing that the trial court's view could not be interfered with given proper appreciation of evidence, the Court upheld the acquittal of respondent no.2/accused as the presumption of innocence had arisen in favor of respondent no.2.

“Hence, there is no scope for this Court to interfere in the impugned judgment supplanting the view of learned Trial Court by other view. The view taken by learned Trial Court is reasonable and possible one based on proper appreciation of law and evidence on record.”, the court concluded.

Accordingly, the appeal was dismissed.

Appearance:

For the Appellant/s : Mr. Shyam Nandan Thakur, Advocate

For the State : Mr. Abhimanyu Sharma, APP

For the Respondent No.2: Mr. Shashank Shekhar, Advocate

Case Title: Soni Kumari & Anr. Versus The State of Bihar, CRIMINAL APPEAL (DB) No.749 of 2019

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