- (1.) HARMEL Singh. a teacher under suspension and Harbans Lal have been convicted under Sections 363 and 366 of the Indian Penal Code by the order of the Additional Sessions Judge. Hissar. dated 23rd August 1969 and whereas Harmel Singh was sentenced to one year's rigorous imprisonment under both the counts Harbans Lal was sentenced to six months' rigorous imprisonment under each count. The convicts have filed separate appeals being Criminal Appeals Nos. 1015 and 1017 of 1969. This Judgment will dispose of both the appeals as they arise out of the same order.
(2.) THE case of the prosecution is that Gela Ram's family used to live in Mandi Dabwali while Gela Ram himself was employed as a Patwari and was posted at Gobindgarh. Both the appellants. Harmel Singh and Harbans Lal. used to reside in the neighborhood of the house of Gela Ram in Mandi Dabwali and it appears that they were on visit terms with Gela Ram. The case of the prosecution is that a month before the occurrence Gela Ram's wife and only child Asha Rani the prosecutor in this case shifted to Fatehabad to meet the grandparents. It is further alleged that on 22nd July 1968 Asha Rani P. W. who was a minor at that time left her house to go to the house of her maternal uncle when the two accused met her on the way and told her that her father had met with a serious accident and they had been sent to escort her to Dabwali. Without verifying this fact she accompanied both the accused and they all went to the bus-stand from where they boarded a bus for Sirsa. At Sirsa Harmel Singh disclosed to her that she had been brought there because he wanted to get married with her and threatened that in case she divulged this to anybody she would be killed. She was also threatened that she would be killed in case she refused to Pet married. The threat was given by showing a big knife which Harmel Singh was carrying at that time. Asha Rani was then taken to the railway station from where they caught a train and reached Bhatinda and went to the house of one Jagdish Rai Advocate. The two accused and Asha Rani staved at the house of Jagdish Rai and during this period Harmel Singh accused committed sexual intercourse with Asha Rani and also took her to the Gurdawara on 24 the July 1968 and performed the marriage ceremony. On 25th July 1968 the police accompanied by Asha Rani's father arrived in Bhatinda and arrested Harmel Singh while he was in the company of Asha Rani Earlier than that Gela Ram had lodged a report at Police Station. Fatehabad on 24th July. 1968 and it was on that account that the police had arrived at Bhatinda and had arrested the accused. After the completion of the investigation the accused were challenged and convicted and sentenced as above.
(3.) IT is not disputed on behalf of the State that the evidence of Asha Rani that she had been threatened and forced to accompany the accused or had been duped into accompanying them was not true. It has been admitted by Asha Rani that at no stage did she seek the help of any person though she had met a large number of persons. It is further in her statement that even at the house of Jag-dish Rai she did not disclose it either to Jagdish Rai or to his family that she had been brought there by deception and force and was being kept there against her will. Asha Rani has further admitted that even at the Gurdawara while the marriage ceremony was being performed and a large number of persons were present the fact that she had been brought there against her will was not brought to the notice of either the granthi who was performing the ceremony or other respectable who were present in the gurdawara. She has also admitted that photographs were taken at the time of the ceremony and she was forced to put up a happy face to show that everything with her was all right. All this leaves no manner of doubt that Asha Rani was a consenting party and that the story that she had been made to accompany the accused on the false representation that her father had met with an accident was false and that she had willingly accompanied the appellants first to Sirsa and then to Bhatinda.;