A bench of Justice Ramana and Rastogi in the case titled CHAITU LAL vs STATE OF UTTARAKHAND on 20.11.2019 has observed that undressing is not a necessity to establish an strive to rape.
While dealing with a conviction for attempted rape, the Supreme Court determined and held as under:
“The tips of the accusedappellant has pleaded that the movements of the accusedappellant do not represent the offence under Section 511 read with Section 376, as the accusedappellant had no longer committed any overt act such as; any strive to undress himself in order to commit the alleged act….
The try to commit an offence starts when the accused commences to do an act with the integral intention. In the existing case, the accusedappellant pounced upon the complainantvictim, sat upon her and lifted her petticoat while the complainantvictim protested in opposition to his advancements and wept….
Herein, although the complainantvictim and her daughter had been pleading with the accused to let the complainantvictim go, the accusedappellant did not exhibit any reluctance that he was once going to quit from committing the aforesaid offence. Therefore, had there been no intervention, the accusedappellant would have succeeded in executing his crook design. The habits of the accused in the current case is indicative of his particular intention to commit the said offence……
Considering the data and circumstances, the guilt of the accusedappellant has been installed past doubt. In our opinion, therefore, the courts beneath have rightly convicted and sentenced the accused. In view of the aforesaid observations, the appeal lacks advantage and is for that reason dismissed”.
Section 376 IPC: If there is a definitive intention to commit rape, it is immaterial whether the accused undressed himself or not [Read the Order]
