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The girl informed her family about the repeated rapes after the accused had married some other woman. She claimed that the accused had promised to marry her.
The Calcutta High Court recently observed that a lady, especially a minor girl, would feel shy in publicly disclosing a sexual assault upon her in order to avoid a future social stigma.
The court observed so in a case where a 16 years old girl had kept her physical relations with a local man secret from her family and later, informed that she had been raped repeatedly on false promise of marriage.
The convict in the case filed an appeal against his conviction and sentence of 10 years in jail before the high court. His counsel argued that the trial court had erred in its judgment as the testimony of the victim was not at all reliable. He claimed that there were contradictions in the statement of the victim and a conviction based on such evidence could not be sustained.
He further claimed that the allegations against the convict were false as the complaint in the case was filed with a delay of around one month from the date of the alleged last rape incident.
However, the division bench Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Md Shabbar Rashidi noted that it had been stated by several witnesses that the victim and the convict had a love affair.
Court also emphasised that the victim had deposed that she did not disclose the fact of repeated sexual intercourse to anyone until the convict married some other lady.
"There appears some plausible explanation for not disclosing about the sexual relations before the parents and relatives of the victim," opined the court.
Further, regarding the delay in filing the complaint, court observed that after the victim's such disclosure, the parents of the victim had visited the residence of the convict and after being driven out from there, a police complaint was lodged. Therefore, there appears no delay in lodging the case, held the court.
Moreover, court opined that the prosecution had been able to establish the foundational facts of the convict being in a love relationship with the victim which occasioned him being in a position to commit sexual assault upon the victim.
Therefore, stating that it was incumbent upon the convict to establish that the allegations were false and as to why he was chosen from amongst the people in the town, to be falsely implicated for the offence complained of, court ruled against him.
Case Title: Raja Ruidas V The State Of West Bengal
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