‘Under no circumstances, victim would concoct such gruesome incident’: Calcutta High Court upholds conviction of tutor who raped minor – LawBeat

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Synopsis

The Calcutta High Court recently upheld the conviction and the life imprisonment awarded to a man who raped his 8-years-old student. 

While rejecting the argument raised by the counsel for the convict that incident of rape had been concocted in order to implicate him, the bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Ananya Bandyopadhyay observed,

“The relationship between a teacher and a student is considered to be pious in Indian society. The victim girl under no circumstances would fabricate or concoct such a gruesome incident causing excruciating pain to her body as evident from the testimony of the PW 5 who stated that the victim was tossing on bed.”

It added, “The victim girl of 8/9 years of age generally considers a teacher with high regard and respect. She would not have fathomed or imagined such a cruel, deplorable and despicable act on her body which at such a tender age would devastate her entire persona creating far reaching effect on her mind to linger and haunt her in future”.

Moreover, while stressing that the prosecution had been able to prove the case beyond reasonable doubts, the bench said,

“The family entrusting the children at the disposal of a teacher could never imagine the commission of such horrifying act disrupting their trust in a tutor or a teacher. This is not a crime or blow against a victim girl but entirely a catastrophe dismantling the strata of social confidence in the relationship between a teacher and a student.“

Convict Abbas Sk @ Abbas Hossain moved an appeal before the high court against the judgment and order of conviction passed by the Additional District and Sessions Judge alleging that he had been falsely implicated in the case. His counsel argued that the Forensic reports also ruled out the existence of semen (spermatozoa) or any other biological significant foreign body on the items seized from the crime scene or from the body of the victim and that there were also contradictions in the evidence of the prosecution witnesses. 

However, the court observed that in absence of any other credible evidence, the sole testimony of the victim whose tender body and mind suffered immensely subjected to such pain on record was sufficient to establish the prosecution case. “Minor contradictions in the evidence of PW1, PW 2, and PW 3 do not affect the prosecution case as the medical report vividly describes the commission of the offence upon the victim,” the court held. 

Court noted that in her statement recorded under Section 164 CrPC, the victim had narrated her entire experience of being subjected to penetrative sexual assault by the convict which she reiterated and confirmed before the court without any deviation. “The act of forceful penetrative sexual assault and its consequence on the body of the victim is corroborated by the nature of injury and the operation undergone by the victim enumerated in the medical report,” the Court further stated. 

Therefore, while holding that the case was proved beyond reasonable doubt, the bench upheld the conviction and sentence under Section(s) 376(3) of the Indian Penal Code and also under Section 6 of the POCSO Act awarded to the convict. 

As per the prosecution case, the convict was a private tutor in the village of the minor victim whom he forcibly raped and fled the scene in May 2018. The 8-year-old child sustained a bleeding injury and had to be admitted to a hospital where she struggled with death.

Case Title: Abbas Sk @ Abbas Hossain v. State of West Bengal