Patna: The Patna high court has held that in the absence of medical evidence, such as bruises or injuries on the survivor’s body, or material evidence, such as torn or disarranged clothes, the allegation of a man entering a woman’s hut on a dark night, covering her mouth and mounting on her body cannot, by itself, establish rape. The court held that the acts could, at best, constitute the punishable offence of assault on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty.A single bench of Justice Sandeep Kumar passed the verdict on Oct 8 while partially allowing a criminal appeal filed by Md Ainul Haq. The judgment came into the public domain on Tuesday morning.The high court modified the Begusarai trial court’s verdict of July 29, 2013, which had convicted Ainul of raping a widow and sentenced him to four years’ imprisonment and a fine. The high court instead held him guilty of indecent assault on the woman and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000, payable to her within three weeks.Justice Kumar based his judgment on Supreme Court rulings in Aman Kumar vs State of Haryana (2004) and Rupan Deol Bajaj vs K P S Gill (1995).According to the prosecution, on the night of Feb 8, 2010, Ainul entered the woman’s thatched hut around 10pm, covered her mouth and mounted on her “with evil intentions”. When he removed his hand from her mouth, she raised an alarm, prompting 10-15 co-villagers, including her immediate neighbour, to arrive and apprehend him.During the trial, however, all witnesses except the woman turned hostile. The prosecution also produced no medical or material evidence to support its case.The high court observed that even if the woman’s testimony was accepted, the evidence established, at best, the offences of criminal trespass and assault. It accordingly modified Ainul’s conviction and imposed the fine.
