POCSO | Can Penetration Be Inferred From Alleged Bleeding When Medical Report Shows No Injury? Allahabad High Court Answers

The Allahabad High Court has observed that the absence of injuries does not, by itself, disprove allegations of rape or penetrative sexual assault; however, inferring penetration from alleged bleeding becomes highly doubtful when a contemporaneous medical report completely rules out any bodily injury without a satisfactory explanation.A bench of Justice Salil Kumar Rai and Justice Vinai Kumar Dwivedi observed that while trustworthy ocular testimony ordinarily prevails over medical opinion, the contemporaneous medical findings can't be ignored if they conclusively negate a material factual assertion made by the prosecution. "In prosecutions for rape or penetrative sexual assault, the absence of injuries is not, by itself, decisive; however, where the prosecution itself relies upon a specific allegation of bodily injury or bleeding and the contemporaneous medical examination completely negatives such assertion without any satisfactory explanation, the inconsistency assumes considerable significance in evaluating whether the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt", the bench observed. With these observations, the High Court set aside the life term awarded to the appellant under Section 376(2)(i) IPC and Section 6 POCSO Act in connection with the 2017 sexual assault case. The Court modified the conviction of the accused-appellant to aggravated sexual assault under Section 10 of the POCSO Act. Background and Trial Court's Error An FIR was lodged on September 7, 2017, alleging that the appellant took a 5-year-old girl child to his terrace and did objectionable things (gandaa kaam) to her. The victim's mother claimed she noticed blood on the child's undergarments and legs However, when the victim was medically examined on the same night, the medical report recorded no external or internal injury on her body. Her hymen was also found intact; no bleeding or injury in or around the genital region was recorded in the report. The victim's statement under Section 164 CrPC was recorded approximately two months after the incident. In that statement, she stated that the appellant had hit her with his fist on the lower part of her body, opened his zipper and removed her undergarments. She also stated that she had bled, experienced pain and that her undergarments were stained with blood. However, she did not depose about bleeding before the trial court and during her cross-examination, when asked what she meant by “gandaa kaam”, she remained silent. In fact, the victim did not make any allegation of penetration. Despite this, the trial court convicted the appellant on the basis of the victim's statement under Section 164 CrPC. The High Court noted that the Trial Court had inferred penetration from the allegations of bleeding and invoked the reverse-onus presumption under Section 29 of the POCSO Act to hold the accused guilty. High Court's Observations Hearing the appeal of the Convict, the High Court perused the trial court's reasoning and found a "fundamental defect" in the prosecution's case regarding penetrative sexual assault. The Bench noted that in her earlier statements before the police, the victim did not state that the appellant's act caused bleeding or that her undergarments were stained with blood, or that blood was present on her legs. "The absence of any reference to bleeding in this first statement, as well as in her deposition before the Court, raises a serious doubt about the subsequent allegation of bleeding made in the statement under Section 164 Cr.P.C., which was recorded two months later", the bench observed. The Court added that the statement under Section 164 CrPC could not corroborate a fact not deposed to before the Court and hence, the trial Court erred in treating the allegation of bleeding from the Section 164 statement as substantive evidence. Considering the medical report, which showed no signs of injury, the bench stressed that it supported the possibility that neither penetration nor the alleged bleeding occurred in the manner claimed by the prosecution. The High Court observed that, given the victim's age of five years, penetrative sexual assault accompanied by substantial bleeding would ordinarily result in some signs of bodily injury or trauma, unless the absence of such a finding was medically explained. "It is difficult to reconcile the categorical assertion of PW-3 [mother] that blood was present on the victim's undergarments and legs with the complete absence of external or internal injury in the contemporaneous medical examination...This unexplained inconsistency goes to the root of the case and creates a serious doubt regarding the allegation of penetrative sexual assault," the Court noted. Regarding the invocation of Sections 29 and 30 of the POCSO Act by the Trial Court, the bench clarified that these statutory reverse-onus provisions do not...

POCSO | Can Penetration Be Inferred From Alleged Bleeding When Medical Report Shows No Injury? Allahabad High Court Answers

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POCSO | Can Penetration Be Inferred From Alleged Bleeding When Medical Report Shows No Injury? Allahabad High Court Answers

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