PATNA: The Patna high court has held that removing a woman’s salwar and pressing her chest, is not sufficient to establish the offence of attempt to rape.According to a report by news website, Bar And Bench, the court made the observation while acquitting a man who had been convicted by a trial court for attempt to rape and wrongful confinement in connection with a 2008 incident at a photography studio in Bihar’s Banka district.Justice Purnendu Singh said the allegations, even if accepted in full, amounted to the offence of outraging a woman’s modesty under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and not attempt to rape under Sections 376/511 IPC.The case stemmed from a complaint by a woman who alleged that she had accompanied her father to a photography studio in Amarpur. According to the prosecution, after taking her photograph, the studio owner asked her father to wait outside on the pretext of viewing the photograph on a computer. He then allegedly bolted the studio door, attempted to remove her salwar and pressed her chest with the intention of committing rape. The woman’s father rushed to the door after hearing her cries, following which the accused allegedly fled.A trial court later convicted the accused for attempt to rape and wrongful confinement. He challenged the conviction before the high court.After re-examining the evidence, the high court noted that there was no medical evidence to support the allegation of attempt to rape. It also observed that the investigating officer was not examined during the trial and that the prosecution primarily relied on the testimonies of the woman and her parents.The court said there was no evidence of penetration or any overt act that clearly established an attempt to commit rape.“In the absence of any evidence of penetration, even to the slightest extent, or any overt act unequivocally constituting an attempt to commit rape, the ingredients of Section 375 IPC, and consequently Section 376 read with Section 511 IPC, are not attracted in absence of any medical corroboration.”Holding that the prosecution had failed to prove the charge of attempt to rape beyond reasonable doubt, the high court set aside the trial court’s conviction and sentence, acquitted the accused of all charges and directed that any fine deposited by him be refunded, according to the Bar and Bench report.
