- (1.) The present case is representative of a fairly unenviable scenario in which the impugned finding of exoneration was recorded by the learned Trial Judge (in favour of all the respondents/accused who include none else or other than a member of the (disciplined) police force).
(2.) Facts in the first instance:
(3.) The marriage of the prosecutrix subsisted for a period of about 2-3 years, whereafter she left her matrimonial house and started putting up alone in a house. On 1.9.1997, at about 11.00 P.M., there was a knock at the main door of her house. On opening it, the lone prosecutrix found respondent Devinder Pal Singh and three other persons standing outside her house. One of them slapped her and told her to accompany them to the Police Station where she was wanted in a case. Respondent Balwinder Singh made her sit on a scooter driven by respondent/accused Devinder Pal Singh, who was armed with a pistol. The other respondents- accused followed them on a separate scooter. The unsuspecting prosecutrix was taken to a room situated in the Modern Housing Complex, Manimajra. When she told the respondents that premises to which she had been taken, did not appear like a Police Station, Devinder Pal Singh respondent/accused forbade her from saying anything and further told that the (police) officer (to interrogate her) would be coming over very soon. Thereafter, the prosecutrix was taken in side a room by respondent/accused Devinder Pal Singh who bolted it from in side and forcibly ravished her. He further held out a threat that she would be done to death if she either resisted or raised an alarm. After the act, he came out of the room. The other respondents/accused who were ravishers in waiting, deflowered her, one by one. The pleas by the prosecutrix for mercy fell on their deaf ears. They also repeated the threat held out to her earlier by respondent/accused Devinder Pal Singh. All the ravishers left the room in the morning at about 4.00 A.M. The prosecutrix was left over there only out side the room where in she had been raped. The crest-fallen prosecutrix came over to her house. Her neighbourer Prem Singh called upon her to indicate why she was crying so. The prosecutrix narrated her tale of woe to him. Thereafter, both of them ( i.e the prosecutrix and Prem Singh) left for the Police Station. Enroute, they came across the police party to whom the offence was notified vide statement Ex. PZ.;