NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has said the sole testimony of the victim can be a strong evidence to rely on, along with available attendant evidence, to uphold conviction in a rape case.
"The credible and reliable evidence of prosecutrix could not be jettisoned for want of corroboration including by medical report or evidence," a bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and N V Anjaria said.
The court held the prosecution case in no way gets weakened, merely because the medical evidence is less corroborative and less supportive or absent in details or indictive of no external injuries in such cases.
Upholding conviction and sentence of 10 years imprisonment for appellant Deepak Kumar Sahu, the bench pointed out, it is an opt-reiterated dictum of law that in cases of rape, the testimony of the prosecutrix alone may be sufficient and sole evidence of the victim, when cogent and consistent, could be properly used to arrive at a finding of the guilt.
"In cases of offences committed under Section 376, IPC, when the story of the victim girl as told in the evidence is found credit-worthy, the apparent insufficiency of medical evidence pitted against acceptable testimony of the victim, the
latter would prevail," the bench said.
In its judgment, the court noted the appellant highlighted absence of external signs of injury or scratch marks on the genitals of the victim in medical report.
However, it said, the evidence of the prosecutrix is not only clear and consistent but natural as well, it said.
"There exists no reason, much less compelling reasons, to disbelieve and discard her testimony," the bench said.
The court held, the Chhattisgarh High Court was wholly justified in upholding and confirming the conviction and sentence awarded to the appellant convict by the trial court, as the prosecution proved that he overpowered the victim and committed the forcible act from the totality of evidence.
The prosecution claimed the accused committed the sexual intercourse with the 15-year-old girl on April 3, 2018, when she and her 11-year-old brother were alone in their house, by sending the boy outside.
The trial court in Rajnandgaon sentenced the appellant to 10 years rigorous imprisonment under Section 376 (2), IPC and Section 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
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