On Friday (August 26), the Allahabad High Court upheld the conviction of a man named Ishrat for mutilating the private part of a 4-year-old and attempting to rape her in 1988.
The matter was heard by a single-Judge Bench of Justice Krishan Pahal. While upholding the sentence of the trial court, he remarked, “This is one of the most serious and diabolic offence committed against a minor girl of tender age of four years.”
The Allahabad High Court noted that the guilt of the accused Ishrat was proved beyond any reasonable doubt. “The said offence has been committed out of severe sexual lust and sadistic approach,” it stated.
“The appellant does not deserve any kind of leniency as the said case stands proved beyond any reasonable doubt by the statement of the prosecution witnesses and the medical evidence adduced,” the court added.
Justice Krishan Pahal also dismissed aspersions cast by the advocates of Ishrat about alleged discrepancies in the statement of the victim and witnesses. He observed, “This Court is of the considered view that it is but natural that minor discrepancies and contradictions may appear in the statement of witnesses.”
“It is a settled law that in the evidence of untutored witnesses such contradictions are bound to creep in,” he further emphasised. The court then directed Ishrat to surrender and cancelled his bail bond.
The Allahabad High Court also expressed regret that the State of Uttar Pradesh did not appeal against the short sentence, handed out to the accused by the trial court, despite committing an unspeakable atrocity on a toddler. It noted, “The lethargy of the public prosecutor is highly deplorable.”
The Background of the Case
On the fateful day of November 29, 1988, Irshat lured the minor daughter of Shaukat Ali with a toffee while she had gone to one of the neighbour’s houses to play. He took her behind the bushes in a field and disrobed her.
Irshat then went on to mutilate her private parts with a blade [pdf]. He also tried to rape the 4-year-old girl. The incident took place between 1 pm and 3 pm on November 29 that year. After committing the heinous crime, he fled from the spot, leaving the victim in a pool of blood.
The minor girl was then rushed to a nearby hospital by the local people. Dr. Ashok Upadhyay, who examined the victim on the same day, noted, “Horizontal incised wound 6cm x 1cm x muscle deep present on the pubic region 6cm below the umbilicus fresh bleeding present.”
The victim’s mother (also a witness in the case) had informed the court that she had a heated argument with Irshat, about 15 days prior to his heinous crime.
Irshat was arrested in December 1988 and charged under Indian Penal Code Sections 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons) and 354 (using criminal force to any woman, intending to outrage).
The accused was eventually convicted by the trial court in October 1992. He had tried to evade prosecution by claiming that he was a juvenile, a claim disproven by a bone ossification test. Out of 10 witnesses, only 2 (Gulshan and Mohammed Javed) had turned hostile and claimed to have not witnessed the incident.
One of the breakthroughs in the case was the ability of the victim to identify her perpetrator by name. After 34 years, the Allahabad High Court upheld the conviction of the accused by the trial court.
