KRIS HAN v. STATE OF HARYANA

#8. It is the case of the appellant before the Trial Court that the prosecutrix had intentionally implicated him in this case as 8 she had developed personal grudge against him because he along with his fathe((DVV 1) and one Zile Singh (OW 2) visited the house of the prosecutrix and made a complaint to her father the she had been keeping bad company with some boys and asked her father to keep an eye on her. This resulted in an c, altercation between them and consequently the prosecutrix warned them that she would implicate the appellant in a false case. D

#9. The Trial Court, considering the facts and circumstances of the case, more particularly relying on the FSL report (Ext. P1), came to the conclusion that the prosecution had adduced sufficient evidence in order to bring home the guilt of the accused, and accordingly, the appellant was convicted and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years E and to pay a fine of Rs.5,000/-, in default, to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year, for the offence punishable under Section :376, IPC. For the offence punishable under Section 506, IPC the appellant was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year, to pay a fine of Rs.1,000/ -, in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two months. However, the substantive sentences were directed to run concurrently. F

#10. Dealing with the appeal preferred by the accused, the Single Judge of the High Court fully concurred with the order G of the Trial Court convicting the appellant for the aforesaid offences. Before the High Court, the accused claimed that on the date of incident he was juvenile and hence he may be given the benefit of the provisions of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000. The High Court, therefore, H KRISHAN v. STATE OF HARYANA [N.V. RAMANA, J.] 557 referred the matter to the Juvenile Justice Board to find out A whether on the day of incident, the appellant was juvenile or not. The High Court clarified that in case the Juvenile Justice Board . came to the conclusion that the appellant was a juvenile, he ,1would be dealt with those provisions, otherwise, he would · undergo the sentence awarded by the Trial Court. B

#11. The Juvenile Justice Board, Faridabad considered the case of the accused appellant and reached to the conclusion that the accused had failed to prove with proper documentary evidence that he was a juvenile on the date of occurrence and C accordingly declined his plea to be a juvenile.

#12. Aggrieved by the order passed by the learned Single Judge of the High Court, the appellant approached this Court by this appeal. This Court, wl<lile granting special leave to appeal on 3rd September, 2012, directed the appellant to be D released on bail.

#13. Before us, it is strenuously contended by the counsel for the appellant that the Courts below have failed to appreciate the defence of the appellant who was falsely implicated in the E case. An effort has been made to satisfy this Court that there was strong motive of the prosecutrix to implicate the appellant. It was on account of the altercation that took place when the . appellant party brought to the notice of the father of prosecutrix · about her illicit relationship with some boys, the prosecutrix F warned the appellant that she will take revenge by implicating him in a false case. He also submitted that the Courts below have erred in relying on the statement of prosecutrix that the appellant pushed her twice, gagged her mouth and dragged her holding both hands on lhe dry field of the Arhar and forcibly G committed rape. He submitted that when such a forcible assault is committed on a girl, one would expect some sort of injury on · any part of her body, but the prosecution story is totally ; concocted as it is unbelievable that in spite of all the alleged H 558 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2014] 7 S.C.R. A forcible rape, the victim did not sustain any injury and it is evident from her Medical Report that there was no external mark of injury anywhere on her body.

#14. Learned counsel finally contended that there were $ several anomalies and improvements in the evidence, no corroboration of certain important statements of victim with the medical evidence and the prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. Despite all this, the Trial Court as well as the High Court went on convicting and sentencing the appellant and hence the impugned judgment has to be set aside. C

#15. Learned counsel for the respondent-State, on the other hand, supported the views taken by the Courts below and submitted that there is no iota of doubt in coming to the D conclusion that the appellant has committed the grievous offence, and he is rightly punished by the Courts below. F

#16. The two grounds on which learned coun~el for the appellant laid stress to show that there is no offence committed E by the accused are (i) the medical evidence, and (ii) false implication by the prosecutrix. To appreciate his contention, we have perused the evidence of Dr. Meenu Kapoor-PW 8, who relying upon the report of the Chemical Examiner (Ext. PJ) stated that human semen was detected on the underwear of the victim. In addition to this, as per the evidence of Dr. Sudhir Khurana, PW 2 (E;<t. PA), there were bone injuries on the right forearm, swelling and contusion both on the left hand and right shoulder and abraded contusion of the right leg of the accused. The Doctor opined that these injuries were caused within al G duration of 24 to 72 hours. All these injuries indubitably support the version of the prosec:utrix-victim who stated that in the · scuffle, she had bitten the accused. In addition to this, the Doctor-PW 2 also stated that he found nothing which suggests . that the accused could not perform sexual intercourse. The H KRISHAN v. STATE OF HARYANA [N. V. RAMANA, J.] 559 further contention of the counsel to rule out rape by the accused, A that the prosecutrix is habitual of sexual intercourse and there were no signs of recent forcible sexual intercourse or injuries on her body, also cannot help. It is not expected that every rape victim should have injuries on her body to prove her case. The findings of the medical experts clearly established that there B was a rape committed against the victim. The other ground taken by the counsel is that the prosecutrix has falsely implicated the appellant as his father (DW 1) has complained to her father that she was roaming c around with the company of some boys and hence she has ·threatened that she will implicate the appellant falsely to take revenge for complaining against her, but this plea has also no basis. To prove this fact, the counsel has relied upon the only circumstance that after the arrest of the accused, his father D (DW 1) made a complaint to the Superintendent of Police about the false implication of his son which was signed by two villagers, namely, Mahender Lumberdar and mamchand Balmiki. However, there is no corroborative evidence on record to establish this fact and even the said two persons have not E been examined.

#17. A further submission made by the counsel for the appellant is that after the alleged occurrence, the girl straightaway went to her house and only thereafter she went to the police station to lodge the complaint and hence the story of rape cannot be believed. We find nothing unusual in this, one cannot expect every rape victim to straightaway go to police station and lodge complaint. F

#18. Taking into consideration the totality of circumstances G and on appreciation of entire evidence, supported by the Doctors' opinion and chemical examination report, in our considered opinion, there is nothing to disbelieve the prosecution story that the appellant had committed the offences H 660 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2014] 7 S.C.R. A of rape and criminal intimidation. We, therefore, find no error in the judgments and orders passed by the Courts below and hence we see no reason to interfere.

#19. The plea of the appellant being juvenile has not been B raised before this Court.

#20. The appeal fails and is accordingly dismissed.

#21. The appellant is on bail in view of this Court's order dated 3rd September, 2012. His bail bonds shall stand C cancelled and he.shall be taken into custody forthwith to serve remaining sentence. Nidhi Jain Appeal dismissed. I