Sikkim High court sets free POSCO Accused, in a judgement passed on September 30 the High court observed that, ” We are unhesitant to hold that the
prosecution has failed to establish the case beyond reasonable doubt as required. The appeal is allowed. The impugned judgment and order on sentence are set aside. The appellant is set free if he is not required in any other case”
Milan Kumar Rai was convicted by the Trial Court under section 376(2)(n) and 376(3) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) as well as under section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO).
In a judgement passed by bench of Justices Meenakshi Madan Rai and Bhaskar Raj Pradhan observed that, “It would be difficult to conclude with absolute certainty that what the victim states in her deposition is not coloured by hallucination as she was certainly
suffering from catatonic schizophrenia. There are other evidences which suggest that there could be other reasons which could have led
to the present prosecution. Although, these evidences does not inspire us to believe them with absolute certainty nevertheless it is evidence led by the prosecution and they are bound by it.”
Furthermore the court observed that, “We are required to hold a person guilty only after the prosecution convincingly lays before the court clear evidence
to establish the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt. The prosecution has failed to do so. This may have been because of the delay in lodging the FIR. We cannot base our judgment on surmises and conjectures”
The procession presented that, “It was
held that the statement of the victim that whenever she used to be alone at home the appellant used to have forcible penetrative sex with her and that he did it several times, as well as the allegation, that he raped her in the dairy and at home was sufficient to prove that he had committed the offence on more than one occasion”
In the process while in cross examination of evidence of prosecution the court observed that,
On a reading of the 164 Cr.P.C. statement recorded of the victim (exhibit-4) as well as the deposition it
is noticed that both are extremely cryptic giving no scope to us to weigh the truthfulness of the statements. The statement and the deposition although both cryptic vary in its details. It would be difficult
to conclude with absolute certainty that what the victim states in her deposition is not coloured by hallucination as she was certainly suffering from catatonic schizophrenia. There are other evidencesbwhich suggest that there could be other reasons which could have led to the present prosecution. Although, these evidences does not inspire us to believe them with absolute certainty nevertheless it is evidence led by the prosecution and they are bound by it. The other evidence led by the prosecution does not take the case further and it is unclear even in the end of the trial as to when, exactly where and how the incident/incidents occurred.” Sikkim High Court
After the judgement by the Sikkim High Court on September 30, 2022 the 37 year old Milan Kumar Rai of west Sikkim was set free from all related charges.