Woman not raped, says bench after reappraising evidence

The Madras High Court today reappraised evidence in a rape case and held that a 21-year old woman was not raped 10 years ago when she was grazing cattle.
Partly allowing the appeal filed by the convict, Justice P N Prakash of the Madurai bench said the accused had only attempted to rape, going by the deposition of the victim and modified the 2010 lower court order and commuted the sentence from 10 years RI to seven years RI.
The judge said the clearance given by the court that she was not raped could save the woman who was facing unkind and hurtful remarks from local people.

He also said that due to his finding the victim need not have to live in shame and need not be subject to snide ridicule by anyone.
The incident took place on May 25 2004, when the then teen-aged victim was grazing cattle. She had charged the convict with raping her after dragging her to a secluded place.
The appellant's counsel claimed the prosecution case could not be believed as the complaint had been filed two days after the alleged incident. There was a discrepancy about the exact location where the victim was supposedly raped.
The judge said the delay in filing a complaint could be due to the fact that the girl was being brought up by her mother without her husband's support and it was natural for her to immediately feel that if the incident was made public, it would affect the future of the victim.

He also rejected the plea relating to lack of clarity over location of the incident, saying that in villages, people generally let their cattle graze in remote places that will not have any clear boundary or demarcation.