Grabbing Breasts, Breaking Pyjama Strings Not Attempt to Rape, Just Stage of Preparation: Allahabad HC

Prayagraj: While hearing a case of rape, the Allahabad High Court made a significant observation, that grabbing breasts and breaking pyjama strings of woman does not amount to attempt to rape and that it's just a stage of preparation.

The court made this observation while listening to revision petition filed by two accused, challenging the order of the lower court, in an rape case.

Grabbing Breasts, Breaking Pyjama Strings Not Attempt to Rape: Allahabad HC

A single-judge bench of Justice Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra was hearing a revision petition filed by two accused, in a case of rape of an 11-year-old girl, challenging the judgement by a lower court. During the hearing, the Allahabad High Court judge observed that grabbing breasts of a woman or breaking her pyjama strings do not amount to attempt to rape, but is just a stage of preparation.

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The order read, “...the allegation against accused Pawan and Akash is that they grabbed the breasts of the victim and Akash tried to bring down lower garment of the victim and for that purpose they had broken string of her lower garments and tried to drag her beneath the culvert, but due to intervention of witnesses they left the victim and fled away from the place of incident. This fact is not sufficient to draw an inference that the accused persons had determined to commit rape on victim as apart from these facts no other act is attributed to them to further their alleged desire to commit rape on the victim.”

Differentiating between a ‘stage of preparation’ and an ‘actual attempt' to commit a crime, the court further observed, "...It is also not stated by witnesses that due to this act of the accused the victim got naked or got undressed. There is no allegation that accused tried to commit penetrative sexual assault against the victim. In order to bring out a charge of attempt to rape the prosecution must establish that it had gone beyond the stage of preparation. The difference between preparation and actual attempt to commit an offence consists chiefly in the greater degree of determination.”

Summoning Order Modified, Accused To Be Tried Under Lesser Charges

The accused in the case of attempted rape of an 11-year-old girl, were being tried under Section 376 (Rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 18 (Punishment for Attempt to Commit an Offence) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. 

After making its observations, the court modified the summoning order and directed that the accused be tried under lesser charges of Section 354-B (Assault or use of criminal force with intent to disrobe) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 9/10 (Aggravated sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.