Rajendra Prahladrao Wasnik vs the State of Maharastra

Criminal Appeal no- 145 of 2011

Supreme court of India

BENCH: Hon’ble Mr Madan B. Lokur

DATE OF JUDGEMENT: 12^th Dec 2018

RELEVANT SECTIONS:

• Section 302 IPC (Punishment for murder)
• Section 376(2)f IPC (commit rape on a woman when she is under the age of twelve years)
• Section 377 IPC (Punishment for the unnatural sexual act)

 

BACK STORY

On the intervening night of 2^nd and 3^rd Mar 2007, a three-year-old girl was raped and inhumanly murdered. The accused was victim’s uncle, brother of Mahendra Wasnik- father of the victim. The accused visited PW1 ‘s house on 2^nd March and took Vandana(the victim) to S.T. stand around 6 pm to buy biscuits for her but neither of them returned home. Mahendra and his wife started searching for accused and victim after some time but failed. On the next morning, Vandana’s naked body was found in an open field with her clothes lying over her body.

On 3^rd March 2007, Mahendra reported the crime. The police sent the body for postmortem and the search for the accused was started which lead to his arrest on 9^th April 2007. All the evidence collected from both the victim and the accused was sent to the forensic lab for examination. 13 witnesses were presented in the court but non was an eyewitness.

FORENSIC REPORT

The victim’s body was sent for a postmortem on 3rd March 2007 to the government hospital by Dr Shirsat, where all the evidence from victims body including her clothes and vaginal swabs were sent to FSL for examination. The blood sample, semen sample, hair and clothes of the accused were also sent to FSL for examination and comparison purpose. The postmortem report showed multiple injuries on the victim body, with ruptured private parts indicating rape, sodomy and death by asphyxia. The bite marks found on the cheeks and nipples were also compared with those of the accused for conformation. The FSL DNA fingerprint unit report stated that the semen strains present on the victim’s clothes were that of the accused. The blood strain on victims cloth and that of the accused were of O+ group as shown in the report.

JUDGEMENT

The session judge followed by the high court considers this case to be rare of rarest and had awarded death sentence to the culprit. He further appealed at the Supreme court, where his sentence was reduced as most of the evidence were circumstantial and not very conclusive. The accused was awarded rigorous life imprisonment under section 302, 376(2)f and 377 of IPC along with POCSO act.