Victim’s ‘loose character’ no reason for rape: HC

Mumbai: The Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court has upheld a trial court order that held a man guilty of raping a minor. The convict had moved the high court seeking acquittal on the grounds that the victim was of a loose character and had consensual sex with him. Refusing to accept his arguments, the HC held that the man has no right to rape the survivor on the assumption that she was of a “loose character”.

The court was hearing an appeal by the man against a trial court order of 2004, which found him guilty of raping a 16-year-old. The accused is the survivor's maternal uncle.

The bench of Justice Manish Pitale was hearing a criminal appeal by Ramkrishna Wagh against his conviction by the Akola trial court in 2004. Incidentally, the accused is the rape survivor's maternal uncle. Mr Wagh had filed an appeal in 2005, which came up for final hearing this year, However, he had been let out on bail since then.

As Mr Wagh was not present despite numerous dates being granted by the HC since June 2018, the matter was finally heard by the HC on July 12 in his absence. As per procedure, the court went through the paper book (procedure and order of trial court) before deciding on the criminal appeal.

While disposing of the appeal, the HC bench held that the trial court had followed due procedure and had recorded statements of all involved before convicting Mr Wagh and upheld the judgment.

The court, however, observed that the attempt by Mr Wagh to discredit the rape survivor by getting a defence witness to state that he had had illicit relations with not only the rape survivor but even her elder sister was an attempt to tarnish the victim's character.

The court further said that the defence witness was brought by the appellant with the intention to create an adverse opinion of her character. The court then concurred with the trial court order, which read: "If the prosecutrix was assumed to be of loose character, it could not be said that the appellant had a right to rape her or to have sexual intercourse with her."

The court further held that in light of the fact that the medical examination did not reveal any injury marks around the private parts of the prosecutrix did not absolve Mr Wagh of the crime as he had forcefully had sexual intercourse with the prosecutrix whose age was proved by records to be 16 years at the time of the incident in 2003.

Based on these observations, the court directed Mr Wagh to complete his sentence and ordered compliance within four weeks.