LACK OF PAIN DURING RAPE DOES NOT MEAN THERE WAS NO PENETRATION - MEGHAYALYA HC

The Meghalaya High Court held that merely because a rape survivor did not feel pain in her genitalia cannot be proof that there was no penetration qualifying the accused to be acquitted.

A Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice W Diengdoh thus upheld a trial court order. The lower court convicted the appellant in 2018 for raping a minor 10-year-old girl in 2006 and sentenced him to ten years' imprisonment. The appellant approached the HC against the conviction order and stated that penetration had not been made out and thus the ingredients of Section 376 of the IPC for rape were not attracted. The appellant further that the minor’s underwear was not taken off and the appellant merely rubbed himself on her and hence would not amount to rape.

The appellant further argued that the survivor during cross-examination said that she did not feel any pain. The survivor accepted that the accused had only rubbed his private part over her garments. The trial court had completely glossed over this aspect. The HC bench said that even if the minor's cross-examination is taken at face value, it would still not indicate that there was no penetrative sex in light of the medical reports that confirmed the offense.

The Court upheld the conviction after taking note that the survivor felt pain at the time of the medical examination, which established that she was raped.