Prosecutrix in a Rape Case – Evaluation of Evidence – Part III

In para 10, the Court referred to the various relevant factors which make it difficult for a girl or woman in India to make false allegations of sexual assault and that this is also true in the context of rural, urban, sophisticated and unsophisticated society. The Supreme Court observed as follows in para 17 of the judgment:- “We think it proper, having regard to the increase in the number of sex-violation cases in the recent past, particularly cases of molestation and rape in custody, to remove the notion, if it persists, that the testimony of a woman who is a victim of sexual violence must ordinarily be corroborated in material particulars except in the rarest of rare cases. Dealing with the evidence of the victim the Court observed as follows:- “ The prosecutrix having supplied the details of the crime to her mother PW 6, the mother deposed at the trial that she was told by the prosecutrix that the three accused identified by name had committed rape on her. The Court while appreciating the evidence of a prosecutrix may look for some assurance of her statement to satisfy its judicial conscience, since she is a witness who is interested in the outcome of the charge levelled by her, but there is no requirement of law to insist upon corroboration of her statement to base conviction of an accused”. The Supreme Court further observed:- “The evidence of a victim of sexual assault stands almost at par with the evidence of an injured witness and to an extent is even more reliable, Just as a witness who has sustained some injury in the occurence, which is not found to be self inflicted, is considered to be a good witness in the sense that he is least likely to shield the real culprit, the evidence of a victim of a sexual offence is entitled to great weight, absence of corroboration notwithstanding.