SC slams Orissa HC for acquitting a rape convict on absurd reasons

SC slams Orissa HC

New Delhi, Dec. 16: The Supreme Court today slammed the Orissa High Court for acquitting a rape convict on the absurd reasoning that the victim was a healthy tribal woman capable of resisting the alleged rape and that there was only one eye witness to the alleged crime.
A bench of Justices ~ Mr Arijit Pasayat and Mr Mukundakam Sharma, in a judgement, said that the High Court had taken a wrong view that the accused was either falsely implicated or that it was a case of consensual sex.
“The conclusions are not only confusing but border on absurdity. It baffles us as to why the High Court says that 'law is well settled that it is not possible for a single man to commit sexual intercourse with a healthy adult female in full possession of her senses against her will'. There is not even a single decision which says so,” the apex court observed while quashing the acquittal order passed by the High Court.
In this case the accused Sukru Gowda had allegedly raped the victim in the forest area which was witnessed by another person. On the basis of medical evidence and the purported eye witness account, the Special Judge-cum-Sessions judge, Koraput, Jeypore convicted the accused.
The convict filed an appeal in the High Court which however, disbelieved the prosecution's version and acquitted Gowda of the charge with the above reasoning and other observations. n pti