The Allahabad High Court recently held that actions such as grabbing a child victim's breasts, breaking the string of her pyjama, and attempting to drag her beneath a culvert before fleeing do not constitute the offence of rape or attempt to rape, Bar and Bench reported.
In this case, according to the prosecution, the accused, Pawan and Akash, allegedly grabbed the breasts of the 11-year-old victim. Thereafter, one of them broke the string of her pyjama and attempted to drag her beneath a culvert.
However, before they could proceed further, the intervention of passers-by forced them to flee, leaving the victim behind.
Justice Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra, according to the Bar and Bench, observed:
"...the allegation against accused Pawan and Akash is that they grabbed the breasts of the victim and Akash tried to bring down lower garment of the victim and for that purpose they had broken string of her lower garments and tried to drag her beneath the culvert, but due to intervention of witnesses they left the victim and fled away from the place of incident. This fact is not sufficient to draw an inference that the accused persons had determined to commit rape on victim as apart from these facts no other act is attributed to them to further their alleged desire to commit rape on the victim."
The accused persons had approached the court challenging the summoning order issued to them. They argued that even if the complaint's version is accepted at face value, no offence of rape was made out.
Eventually, the Court altered the charges against the two accused, who were originally summoned to stand trial under Section 376 IPC (Rape) and Section 18 (Punishment for attempt to commit an offence) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The High Court instead directed that the accused be tried under the lesser charge of Section 354-B IPC (assault or use of criminal force with intent to disrobe), along with Sections 9/10 of the POCSO Act (aggravated sexual assault).
The Court, according to the Live Law, observed that a prima facie charge of attempt to rape was not made out against the accused and instead, they were liable to be summoned for a minor charge of Section 354(b) IPC, i.e. assault or abuse a woman with intent to disrobing or compelling her to be naked and Section 9 (m) of POCSO Act.
