KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has held that if an act, though non-penetrative, provides sexual gratification to the accused similar to that of penetrative sex, it will be termed as 'rape' under the Indian Penal Code.
The court added that the definition of rape covered "any manipulation of the body of a woman in such a manner as to simulate an effect, providing sexual gratification, akin to penile penetration."
A Division Bench comprising Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Ziyad Rahman A A held that the definition of rape contained in section 375 of the IPC would take in sexual assaults including sexual acts committed between thighs of the victim.
The Bench issued the order while dealing with an appeal in a POCSO case observed that "Section 375 takes in, sexual assaults beyond penile penetration into vagina, urethra, anus, and mouth; the known orifices in the human body to which such penetration was imaginably possible".
The court further observed that "any part of the body of such woman" as mentioned in Section 375(c) of the Indian Penal Code, brings within its ambit a penile sexual act committed between the thighs held together; which do not qualify to be called an orifice". The court said that when penetration was thus made in between the thighs held together, it would certainly, amount to "rape" as defined under Section 375 of IPC.