Umeshwar Pandey, J. - (1.) In this appeal, the judgment and order dated 14.3.2000 passed by the Special Judge (S.C./S.T. Act) Basti, is under challenge.
(2.) The appellant Udai Bahadur was charged and tried for the offences punishable under Sections 376 I.P.C., 3(i)(xii) and 3(2)(v) S.C. and ST. (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, on the allegation that the prosecutrix, a minor girl about 11 years of age when had gone to see her mother working in the field at about 11.00 a.m. on 12.11.1996, she met the appellant. It was near the field of one Manohar that the accused caught hold of the minor girl and forcibly took her inside the standing sugarcane field and raped her. On the cries and shrieks of Km. Puneeta, Smt. Samundara Devi (P.W. 1) reached there and she also started raising alarm. This hue and cry so raised on the spot attracted other witnesses also there. On having seen the witnesses reaching the spot, the appellant tried to run away from there but he was immediately arrested after a little chase. The prosecutrix, Km. Puneeta was in precarious condition on account of the injuries sustained in the process. She was immediately taken to the hospital for treatment by her father Ram Sumiran. The written report of the incident was lodged by P.W. 2 Visram, the uncle of prosecutrix. Since Km. Puneeta belonged to the scheduled caste community, the case under Sections 376 I.P.C. and 3(i)(xii) and 3(2)(v) S.C. and ST. (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, was registered against the appellant.
(3.) P.W. 6 - Dr. Seema Chaudhary, the then Medical Officer of Women's Hospital, Basti, admitted Km. Puneeta on 12.11.1996, in the hospital on a reference made from the District Hospital. She was bleeding from her vagina and perennial tear was present. She was given treatment and remained admitted in the hospital till 19.11.1996.;