Allahabad HC Upholds Conviction Of Man Who Raped A 10 Y/O Girl 43 Years Ago, Sends Him To Jail To Serve Remaining Sentence

The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of a man who raped a 10-year-old girl 43 years ago (in the year 1979) after finding the testimony of the victim to be reliable. The convict, presently on bail, has been directed to be sent to jail to serve the remaining sentence.

The bench of Justice Samit Gopal also observed that the age of the accused cannot be a ground to extend any benefit to him in the crime committed by him. With this, the Court dismissed the appeal filed by the convict against the judgment and order of the trial court sentencing him to undergo 6 years of imprisonment.

The case in brief

The incident took place on October 4, 1979, when the victim was mowing grass in the fields, and the accused (Om Prakash) caught hold of her and took her to the jwar field and committed rape on her.

The FIR was lodged on that day itself and after the conclusion of the investigation, a Charge Sheet was filed under Section 376 IPC against the accused on December 4, 1979. The III Additional District and Sessions Judge, Meerut found him guilty vide judgment and order dated July 02, 1982.

Challenging his conviction, the accused moved the instant appeal before the High Court in the year 1982. It was his primary argument that the doctor conducting the medical examination of the victim and the Investigating Officer of the case were not examined and the eye-witnesses of the case were also not produced during the trial.

It was also submitted that when he was convicted, he was 28 years old and now, he is about 68 years of age, the incident is of the year 1979 and 43 years have passed since then, hence, sending the appellant to jail now would be too harsh.

High Court's observations

Having perused the evidence on record, the Court, at the outset rejected the argument of the defece that the doctor and the IO were not examined, as the Court noted that the defence had accepted the genuineness of the Chik FIR, the recovery memo of blood stained clothes of victim 'X', her medical examination report, the supplementary medical examination report, the site plan of the place of occurrence and the charge sheet of the matter.

"On one hand, the defence has admitted the genuineness of the said documents during trial and on the other hand in the appeal, the argument of the maker of the documents, not being examined and thus calling upon to draw an adverse inference is not at all impressive to the Court," the Court said.

Regarding the argument of the age of the accused, the Court said that the age of the appellant will have no effect on the question of sentence and also on the conviction of the appellant as if the case has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt, an adequate sentence has to be awarded to him.

Further, finding that the prosecution had succeeded in proving the case beyond reasonable doubt against the accused-appellant, the Court noted that the version of the first informant and the victim 'X' regarding rape being committed on her by the accused-appellant did not get dented throughout the case.

The Court also noted that the medical evidence corroborates with the prosecution version and thus, the Court went ahead to dismiss the appeal while upholding the judgment and order of conviction of the trial court and directed that the convict be taken into custody to serve out the sentences awarded to him by the trial court.

In related news, earlier in March this year, the Allahabad High Court found a man guilty of committing the rape of a 10-year-old girl in May 1988, i.e., over 33 years after the date of the incident. With this, the HC allowed the Government appeal filed in 1989 against the trial court's acquittal order by setting aside the same.

Read more about the case here: Allahabad HC Finds Man Guilty Of Raping A 10 Y/O Girl 33 Years After The Incident, Sets Aside Trial Court's Acquittal Order

Case title - Om Prakash v. State of U.P. [CRIMINAL APPEAL No. - 2097 of 1982]

Case Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (AB) 491

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