Single-judge Justice Ananya Bandyopadhyay said that such actions by a stranger would without doubt be only with the intention of ravishing the minor girl and not for pampering her.
“The action of removing the undergarment of the victim covering and protecting her private parts and forcibly made her lie down on the ground cannot be for any other oblique reason but indubitably for the purpose of ravishing her. The minor child cannot be said to be pampered or mollycoddled by asking to remove her pants and reclining her against her wish,” the Court said.
The Court noted that the convict had lured the victim, a minor child, by giving her ice-cream. She could not control her temptation and went with the appellant, a stranger to the open ground.
“The appellant had no reason to provide an ice-cream to the minor victim except with an ulterior motive of quenching his sexual gratification. The first stage of enticing the victim with an ice-cream and distancing her to an isolated area was preparatory in nature. Thereafter asking the victim to remove her pant and in defiance the appellant himself removing it justifiably signifies an attempt to commit the offence of rape,” the court said in its order passed on January 3.
The action of removing the victim’s undergarment forcibly made her lie down on the ground cannot be for any other oblique reason but indubitably for the purpose of ravishing her, the bench observed.
“The minor child cannot be said to be pampered or molly-coddled by asking to remove her pants and reclining her against her wish. The relationship between the parties was not acrimonious, obliterating the element of false indictment. The appellant who could have been the protector owing to his age conducted such reprehensible act towards the minor victim child, which if accomplished in its entirety would have impacted her life inconsolably to bear the wretched stigma throughout her life,” the bench opined.
It, therefore, upheld the conviction and sentence of 5-year jail handed down by the trial court for rape under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Source: Barandbench
