Prayagraj(India): The Allahabad High Court recently set aside the conviction of a man jailed for 20 years on allegations of rape, criminal intimidation and charges under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (Vishnu v. State of UP).
A bench of Dr Kaushal Jayendra Thaker and Gautam Chowdhary acquitted a man who was in jail for more than twenty years in false rape and Dalit atrocity case.
As per the details, the court learnt that since the date of occurrence of the incident, i.e. 16.9.2000, the accused is in jail i.e. since 20 years. The most unfortunate, aspect of this litigation is that the appeal was preferred through the jail. He was booked under Sections 376, 506 of IPC and 3(1)(xii) read with Section 3(2)(v) of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes ( Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
While listening to the facts and medical reports, the court dismissed the case and found the accused as a victim of mutual rivalry.
The brief facts, as per the prosecution case, are that on 16.9.2000 at about 2:00 p.m the prosecutrix was going from her house in village Silawan(Lalitpur), P.S. Mehroni to Haar ( fields ). When she reached near the mango tree named ‘black mango tree’ situated on the road leading to Zaria accused-Vishnu son of Rameshwar Tiwari who had hidden behind the bushes, caught her and committed rape by pressing her mouth. He went away extending the threat that if any report is lodged at the police station or this fact is divulged to anyone, he will kill her.
She went back to the house and disclosed the whole incident to her family members who did not go to the police station due to threat and went to Lalitpur. But after three days of the incident, she along with her father-in-law Gulkhai and husband Bragbhan went to the police station for reporting the said incident.
Court also learnt that, according to the prosecutrix, it was the rainy season when the incident occurred. She was thrashed in the bushes and the accused had committed a bad act for ten minutes. She did not convey the incident to her husband immediately who was in the fields but on the next day, she said the same to her father-in-law.
However, the medical report suggests no injuries and no sign of sexual assault. Moreover, the court found that there was a motive on the part of the complainant. Both the parties had a land dispute which leads the prosecutrix to file the case of sexual assault.
During the hearing, the honourable court reiterated that the Sc-St act can not be filed against a person if they exchange a land dispute case.
“In our finding, the medical evidence goes to show that doctor did not find any sperm. The doctor categorically opined that no signs of forcible sexual intercourse were found. This was also based on the finding that there were no internal injuries on the lady who was a grown-up lady” the court added.
In view of the facts and evidence on record, the court had convinced that the accused has been wrongly convicted, hence, the judgment and order impugned is reversed and the accused is acquitted.
