Nisha Ghosal
A Divison-bench of Justices A K Mishra and S K Mishra of the Orissa High Court swapped the death sentence of a rape accused to life imprisonment.
On 20th March, 2018, a girl from Godaharishpur village in Jagatsinghpur District went missing. Her body was found the next day and the police arrested a 28-year-old man Kalia Manna.
The charges behind his arrest were by all accounts rape and murder of the girl. In 2019, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court of Jagatshingpur, announced death sentence for Kalia Manna.
Now, the Orissa High Court has commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment, convicted him of murder, but acquitted him of charges of rape.
The Court said that there was no concrete evidence as the case is just based on circumstantial evidence.
“There is no direct evidence and the case is based on circumstantial evidence. The circumstances on which an inference is sought to be drawn must be complete and must be incapable of explanation of any other hypothesis than that of guilt of the accused”, noted Justice A. K. Mishra.
As per the evidences of this case, the bench found five injuries on the neck of the girl caused by hard pressure and the death caused by choking.
The Court also said that the oral evidence of witnesses, who found blood stain on the private part of the deceased when they saw the dead body, cannot be the basis to conclude that rape was committed.
The Indian Penal Code, Section 375 (b), defines rape which says that a rape is committed:
If a man inserts, to any extension or object into the vagina of a women without her consent and will.
But in this case, no evidence came in through the medical test. The doctors said that as per the autopsy reports, the reason behind the death was violent in nature.
After studying all the evidences, the bench came to a conclusion, “Taking cumulatively, all the above circumstances form a chain so complete that there is no escape from the conclusion that the murder of victim on 20.3.2018 was committed by the accused and none else. The guilt of the accused is proved beyond reasonable doubt”
Kalia Manna was held guilty on the basis of the charges under section 302 of the IPC. However, charges under the section 376(2)(I) and 376-A of the IPC and U/s. 6 of POCSO Act were not proved.