The Bombay High Court has reiterated the settled legal principle that the evidence of a prosecutrix in cases of sexual assault holds the same value as that of an injured witness, and a conviction can be safely founded on her sole testimony if it inspires confidence and is found to be trustworthy. The Court emphasized that seeking corroboration as a mandatory rule amounts to adding insult to injury, and appellate courts possess the wide power to reverse a judgment of acquittal if the trial court’s conclusions are perverse, patently illegal, or based on an erroneous understanding of facts and law.
Accordingly, the accused was convicted under Section 363 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine, and further convicted under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to the then-applicable minimum of seven years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine, with both sentences running concurrently.
The Division Bench comprising Justice Sandipkumar C. More and Justice Vaishali Patil-Jadhav observed that the trial court completely misread the evidence and gave undue importance to minor discrepancies that were not fatal to the prosecution’s case. The Court noted that a child of such tender age cannot be expected to narrate the act of sexual assault with precision, and her inability to describe the act in clear terms cannot be a ground to discard her testimony.
The child’s testimony was found to be consistent, trustworthy, and firmly corroborated by the medical evidence, which clearly indicated a ruptured hymen, a second-degree perennial tear, and blood stains on her clothes and genitals. Furthermore, the recovery of the victim’s blood-stained clothes at the instance of the accused corroborated the victim’s statements, rendering the trial court’s approach perverse and contrary to the evidence on record, added the Court.
Briefly, State of Maharashtra filed an appeal against the trial court’s judgment which acquitted the accused of charges under Sections 363, 376, and 323 of the Indian Penal Code. The incident involved a six-year-old victim who was lured away by the accused while she was watching television, taken towards a dam, and subjected to sexual assault. The victim was later found unconscious and bleeding from her private parts by her grandmother. The trial court had acquitted the accused by pointing out minor discrepancies, such as the non-examination of a witness, inconclusive chemical analysis reports, and perceived contradictions in the medical evidence regarding whether the act was an attempt or penetrative sexual intercourse.
