The division judge bench of Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice N.S. Shekhawat of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the case of Manoj Kumar Vs State of Haryana held that child rape cases are the cases of the worst form of lust for sex, where children of tender age are not even spared in the pursuit of sexual pleasure. There cannot be anything more obscene, diabolical, and barbaric than this. It is a crime not only against society but against the entire humanity.
BRIEF FACTS
The factual matrix of the case is that the appellant came to the complainant’s house and kidnapped his 9-year-old daughter and his son (PW-3) saw the appellant while taking away his daughter. Thereafter, they tried to reach out to his daughter but couldn’t find her. Furthermore, the complainant got to know that his daughter’s dead body was lying in the field in a nude condition. The FIR was registered under sections 363, 376(2), and 302 of IPC against the present appellant.
The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant has contended that the case of the prosecution is based on the hearsay evidence and the PW-3 had been falsely introduced by the prosecution and no weightage could be given to his statement. Further, the case of the prosecution is based on circumstantial evidence and the prosecution had utterly failed to complete the chain of link evidence against the appellant on the basis of theory of last seen evidence.
COURT’S OBSERVATION
The Hon’ble High Court found that the testimonies of the said two witnesses could never be rejected on the ground that they were closely related to the victim ‘A’. In fact, PW-3 was the most natural witness and the appellant was known to him. Even though he was the brother of the victim and his presence near the place of occurrence was natural. Still, further, even though he was subjected to cross-examination and his testimony was found worthy of placing reliance on and was consistent. Still, further, no reason for falsely implicating the appellant or any ill-will on the part of the said witnesses has been suggested to both the prosecution witnesses i.e. PW-2 and PW-3. Even in his statement under Section 313 Cr.P.C., the appellant has not offered any explanation with regard to his alleged false implication in the instant case. In fact, PW-3 had seen the appellant taking away the victim ‘A’ on his bicycle, immediately prior to the commission of the offense. When PW-2 went to their house to complain against the appellant, he was also found missing from there and did not return home that night. Further, the reliance was made upon the judgment titled Ganpat Singh Vs. The State of Madhya Pradesh, 2017 (4) R.C.R. (Criminal), 149. The hon’ble high court further held that the defence had miserably failed in proving the plea of alibi and the testimonies of the said two witnesses are liable to be rejected outrightly. At this stage, it is observed that taking of a false defence by the appellant would also serve as an additional link in the chain of circumstances, which unerringly established the guilt of the appellant beyond any doubt.
The hon’ble high court held that the child rape cases are the cases of worst form of lust for sex, where children of tender age are not even spared in the pursuit of sexual pleasure. There cannot be anything more obscene, diabolical and barbaric than this. It is a crime not only against the society, but against the entire humanity. Many of such cases are not brought to the light because of the fact that the social stigma is attached thereto. According to some surveys, there has been a steep rise in the child rape cases. The children need more care and protection not only by the parents and guardians, but also by the Courts and society at large. In such cases, the responsibility is equally there on the shoulders of the Court so as to provide proper legal protection to these minor victims. The children are natural resource of our country and are also country’s future. In our country, a girl child is in a very vulnerable position and one of the modes of her exploitation is rape beside other modes of sexual, emotional and financial abuse. These factors require a different approach to be adopted towards such victims. The overturning of a well considered and well analysed judgment of the trial Court on the grounds of minor inconsistencies in the statements of the witnesses, when the case against the appellant otherwise stood established beyond reasonable doubt, was not called for. Minor improvements or inconsistencies in the statements of truthful witnesses, who have been examined after a long lapse of time, are wholly insignificant. Having played with the life of a minor child aged about 9 years, which has been proved by the prosecution by leading unimpeachable and cogent evidence, the court find no ground to interfere with the impugned judgment and order passed by the Court of learned Additional Sessions Judge, and uphold and affirm the same.
CASE NAME- Manoj Kumar Vs State of Haryana
CITATION- CRA-D-825-DB-2012 (O&M)
CORUM- Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice N.S. Shekhawat
DATE-26.09.22
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