The Madras High Court has upheld the conviction and life sentence of a man for raping a woman suffering from moderate mental illness. The court ignored the inconsistent answers given by the victim during the cross-examination as it was natural for such persons to take time to understand and answer the questions properly.
A division bench of Justice PN Prakash and Justice RN Manjula wrote: “The victim clearly understood what had happened to her and told it in her examination-head in a clearly understandable language for all. When he was questioned during the cross-examination, it is natural for him to be nervous and slowly raise questions.”
The judges told that the victim belongs to the lower strata of the society. She was married to a man who had left her within six months of marriage. Since then the woman was living in her ancestral home in Tiruppur district. On 5 February 2014, a local resident Sakthivel forcibly took her to a cotton godown and raped her.
Pronouncing the verdict, Justice Manjula observed: “It is a pathetic case of a partially retarded woman, who was brutally subjected to violent sexual abuse… Though the victim was found to be moderately retarded, the doctor (prosecution) Witness No. 10) said that she can understand the questions asked to him but answers late.
Therefore, while answering the questions asked during the cross-examination, the victim initially answered “yes” when asked whether sexual intercourse took place with her consent and immediately changed her answer to “no”. Similarly, when asked if he did not oppose the incident, he initially said “yes” and then “no”.
“These answers of the victim cannot be taken as a serious contradiction to the simple cause of her partial retardation … The Division Bench observed.
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