SC: Rape victim may take time to lodge FIR

The Supreme Court said a Hindu woman is reluctant to lodge an FIR for an offence like rape and may take some time before deciding to register a case against the culprit, who had sexually assaulted her. 



A bench comprising Justices V S Sirpurkar and Deepak Verma, while dismissing the appeal of two brothers against their conviction and sentence in a rape case, noted, ‘ When an FIR by a Hindu lady is to be lodged with regards to commission of offence like rape, many questions would obviously crop up for consideration before one finally decides to lodge an FIR.’ ‘It is difficult to appreciate the plight of the victim who has been criminally assaulted in such a manner, it added. 



‘Obviously, prosecutrix must have also gone through great turmoil and only after giving a serious thought must have decided to lodge the FIR.’ Precisely, this appears to be the reason for little delayed FIR, observed. 



The incident had taken place on July 23, 1983 in Bihar, where a married women was forcibly raped by two brothers Sohan Singh and Mohan Singh. 



An FIR was lodged the next day. 



Both the brothers were held guilty of gang rape and sentenced to four years imprisonment by the trial court, Begusarai on September 26, 1991. 



The Patna High Court dismissed their appeals on December 17, 2002. 



Justice Deepak Verma, in a judgement for the bench, concluded by saying that the appellants have not denied the allegations of rape but they had taken a plea of consensual sex with the victim, which has not been believed by the two courts below. 



The duo will have to go to jail after 26 long years.