New Delhi, May 30 (DHNS): The Supreme Court on Tuesday brought out the all-round devastating fallout of rape, describing it as an offence which not only defiled a woman’s body but also marred her reputation, besides having deleterious effect on her family and the social milieu.

“Rape or an attempt to rape is a crime not just against an individual but one that destroys the basic equilibrium of the social atmosphere. Consequential death is more horrendous. It is to be kept in mind that an offence against the body of a woman lowers her dignity and mars her reputation. It is said that one’s physical frame is his or her temple; no one has any right to encroach upon,” a vacation bench of Justices B S Chauhan and Dipak Misra said.

The court made the observation while confirming an Allahabad High Court verdict, awarding life term to a man for killing a nine-year-old girl on being apprehended for his attempt to ravish her in 1994.

The bench dismissed an appeal of accused Jugendra Singh, challenging the HC’s decision which had overturned his acquittal by a trial court.

“An attempt for the momentary pleasure of the accused has caused the death of a child and had a devastating effect on her family and, in the ultimate eventuate, on the collective at large. When a family suffers in such a manner, the society as a whole is compelled to suffer as it creates an irreparable dent in the fabric of the social milieu. The cry of the collective has to be answered and respected and that is what exactly the High Court has done by converting the decision of acquittal to that of conviction and imposed the sentence as per law,” Justice Misra, writing for the bench, said.
The apex court relied upon several circumstances, including the arrest of the accused on the spot at the time of offence, no record of previous enmity between victim’s family and the accused, no motives ascribed to witnesses  to implicate him.

“The case at hand graphically exposes the inferior endowments of nature in the appellant who failed to husband his passion and made an attempt to commit rape on a nine-year-old-girl and the tears of the child failed to have any impact on his emotion; and even an iota of compassion did not surface as if it had been atrophied and eventually he pressed her neck which caused instant death of the nervous young girl,” the bench said.