Meghalaya High Court: The Division bench of Sanjib Banerjee, CJ. and W. Diengdoh, J. dismissed the appeal which was filed on behalf of the convict with counsel engaged by the Legal Services Authority.
A Criminal appeal was filed by the accused against the order of trial Court where the accused admitted to the commission of offence. In the case, FIR was filed by 14-year-old victim’s father on 28-04-2017 and the incident took place the previous afternoon. As per the FIR, victim was returning from school on 27-04-2017, when she was accosted by the present appellant and another person who forcibly took her to the nearby jungle and raped her one after another. The two left the victim bleeding and threatened the victim not to narrate the incident to any person.
Victim was medically examined and it was found that she had redness in the labia minora and her hymen was torn. Her “inner frock” was seized by the investigating officer and the medical examiner, who examined the victim, testified later in Court that it was his opinion that the victim had been violated and sexually assaulted.
The appellant’s statements at the Section 313 stage, amount to this: that neither the appellant nor the other person involved with him had any motive of committing rape on the victim or bore any grudge against the victim or her family but upon seeing the victim trudging back alone after school, they were overcome with carnal desire and committed the offence.
The appellant admitted to the fact that the victim was bleeding at the time that the appellant raped her and the juvenile offender committed rape thereafter. The appellant also admitted that the appellant and the juvenile offender had threatened the victim and had asked her not to disclose the incident to any person.
The Court opined that there was no merit in the appeal and it was established and proved beyond reasonable doubt in course of the trial that it was the appellant who committed the offence. The appeal was accordingly dismissed.[Witnar T. Sangma v. State of Meghalaya, 2022 SCC OnLine Megh 17, decided on 15-02-2022]
Advocats before the Court:
Dr. N Mozika, Legal Aid Counsel, for the petitioners/appellants
Mr K Khan, PP with Mr S Sengupta, Addl.PP, for the respondents
