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NAFR
HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH, BILASPUR
Acquittal Appeal No.277 of 2010
Smt. Ganga Bai W/o Govind Chandrakar, aged about 23 years,
Resident of Village Kunwa Thana Pipariya, Tahsil Kawardha,
District Kabirdham (CG)
—- Appellant
Versus
1. Gautam Chandrakar S/o Paras, aged about 26 years, Resident
of Village Kunwa, Tahsil Kawardha, District Kabirdham (CG)
2. State of Chhattisgarh, Through PS Pipariya, District Kabirdham
(CG)
—- Respondents
For Appellant : Mrs. Ranjana Jaiswal, Advocate
For Respondent 1 : Mrs. Indira Tripathi, Advocate
For Respondent 2/State : Mr. Bhaskar Payashi, Panel Lawyer
DB: Hon’ble Shri Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra
Hon’ble Shri Justice Ram Prasanna Sharma
Judgment On Board
Per Prashant Kumar Mishra, J.
13.03.2018
1. Challenging the acquittal of respondent No.1- Gautam
Chandrakar for the offence under Section s 451, 376 and 354 IPC
in S.T. No.33/2009 by the Sessions Judge, Kabirdham
(Kawardha) (CG) vide judgment dated 4.2.2010, the prosecutrix
has preferred this appeal on the ground that the trial Court has not
appreciated the evidence in its true perspective and has recorded
illegal and perverse finding in respect of the offence committed by
respondent No.1.
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2. Mrs. Ranjana Jaiswal, learned counsel for the appellant
would submit that the prosecutrix had in fact, lodged the report for
offence under Section 354 IPC, however, on wrong advise, she
preferred a private complaint before the concerned Magistrate, on
which, offence under Sections 451 and 376 IPC was also
registered. Therefore, even if the offence under Section 376 IPC
was not made out, the trial Court should have convicted the
accused/respondent No.1 for offence under Section 354 IPC on
the basis of First Information Report (FIR) which depicted the true
incident happened with the prosecutrix.
3. To appreciate the submission, we have perused the entire
record.
4. For an incident which occurred on 7.9.2008 at about 9.00
am, the prosecutrix lodged FIR at 13.30 hrs. on the same day
alleging that when she had gone to the grainyard of her house to
bring gram husk, the accused came over there, caught hold of her
hand, pressed her breast and instructed her to remove her Saree,
on which, she shouted by calling “Chor Chor”, whereafter, her
husband proceeded towards the place, seeing whom, the accused
ran away. After some days, the prosecutrix lodged a private
complaint under Section 200 Cr.P.C. in which her statement was
recorded on 2.1.2009. In this statement, she alleged that the
accused/respondent No.1 has also performed sexual intercourse
with her.
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5. Admittedly, the prosecutrix was never sent for medical
examination. The trial Judge having found the nature of
allegations in the private complaint lodged by the prosecutrix and
the contents of the charge sheet filed by the Police, committed
both the matters for Sessions Trial.
6. Considering the evidence of Ganga Bai (PW1), Govind
Chandrakar (PW2), Kanti Bai (PW3), Loknath Chandrakar (PW4)
and Sanjay Pundhir (PW5) and the defence witness Lalaram
(DW1), the trial Court has recorded a finding that in view of the
previous land dispute between the parties which is reflected from
the document Ex. D/9 and two different stories narrated by the
prosecutrix, first in her FIR and the second in private complaint,
her case appears to be doubtful. It is also to be seen that after
lodging the FIR, her statement was recorded under Section 161
Cr.P.C., in which also she did not inform the Police that the
accused/respondent No.1 has committed sexual intercourse with
her.
7. In our considered view, when the prosecutrix appears to
have made a false complaint of rape against the accused, the trial
Court has rightly concluded that the first FIR for offence under
Section 354 IPC also becomes doubtful.
8. Considering the previous land dispute between the parties,
the trial Court has rightly held that it is not a fit case for convicting
the accused/respondent No.1 for any of the offence.
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9. There is no substance in this appeal, which fails and is
hereby dismissed.
Sd/ Sd/
Judge Judge
(Prashant Kumar Mishra) (Ram Prasanna Sharma)
sunita
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