Medical Jurisprudence And Toxicology

312 HEDICAI, JURISPRUDENCE

Old men are known to have committed rape on small girls. A man of
60 years beckoned to a girl of seven or eight years and took her into a
small room where he committed rape. She cried "but he threatened to kill
fcer with a knife in case she disclosed the secret. He also communicated to
her the venereal disease from which he was suffering. He was sentenced to
four years' imprisonment by the Magistrate of Amritsar.6 In his annual
report for the year 1949, the Chemical Examiner, Bengal, mentions a case
in which a man, aged 50 years, committed rape on a girl, aged 6 years. He
detected spermatozoa in the vaginal swab and in the urethral smears of the
male.

Age of Victim.—No age is safe from rape. Chevers7 records a case
where a wretch was sentenced at Delhi to twenty years' imprisonment for
rape committed on a woman of seventy years. In his annual report for the
year 1949, the Chemical Examiner of Bengal describes a case of rape com-
mitted on an old woman, 60 years old, resident of Gaya. However, it is
comparatively easy for lusty brutes to commit rape on children, as they are
ignorant of the world and are unable to offer resistance. In India, as in
other countries, rape on children is common owing to the superstitious belief
that gonorrhoea and syphilis are cured by sexual intercourse with a virgin.
The younger a girl the greater is the probability of her being a virgin. To
tiiese may be added the cause of retaliation on the part of parents on account
of previous enmity as a motive for rape on children. A case came under
tfty observation at Agra, where a man committed rape on a girl of eight
ys^-s, the daughter of his mistress, with whom he had had a quarrel. He
infected the girl with syphilis. A case 8 occurred in Banda District, where
an old man of nearly 55 years of age ravished a girl of 14 years by way of
rwenge, because he harboured a grudge against the girl's father and uncle
as they treated him as an outcast and refused to dine with him.

Ike following table gives the age at which rape was committed in one
imndred and thirty-four cases examined by me at Lucknow:—

From 2 to 4 years old........................ 3

From 5 to 9 years old........................ 40

From 10 to 14 years old........................ 68

From 15 to 20 years old........................ 22

SO years old........................ i

Total 134
EXAMINATION OF THE VICTIM

female on whom rape is alleged to have been committed should be
to giw b«r own account of the act without any questions being put
to her. S^£ should never be examined without her written consent taken
in the preseace of a witness if she is of and over twelve years of age and is
capable of tmfe^tamimg the nature and the implication of the examination,
or without the written consent of her parent or guardian, if she is a child
twelw years of age or a feeble-minded person (vide sec. 90, LP.C,,
IV). Tbe examination of a female without her consent is
in law as an assaiit It must be remembered that the Police or
Giort has no power of compelling a woman to submit the private parts of
ter person to tfee e&amimtion of a medical practitioner, male or female. In
a case * wifaere Gopal and two others were p^oseeuted for abduction of one
HasM&mar, &e Session JtuJge of Ahmedafead held -that for/qe cannot be
used % the Ifegfetof^,,0*,lafe sufxwdmate m Hie medical examination of the
* "' '