Kochi, August 5: In a landmark verdict passed by Kerala High
Court while hearing an appeal in a POSCO case, held that if an act, though
non-penetrative, provides sexual gratification to the accused similar to that
of penetrative sex, it will be termed as 'rape' under the Indian Penal Code.
A Division Bench of Justice K. Vinod Chandran and Justice Ziyad
Rahman A.A while hearing the case of Santhosh vs State of Kerala observed: “...we
have no doubt in our mind that when the body of the victim is manipulated to
hold the legs together for the purpose of simulating a sensation akin to
penetration of an orifice; the offence of rape is attracted. When penetration
of an orifice; the offence of rape is attracted. When penetration is thus made
in between the thighs so held together, it would certainly amount to
"rape" as defined under Section 375.”
The decision rendered by the Kerala High Court in a matter
that involved recurrent instances of debauched sexual assaults of various
degrees on a minor girl by her neighbor held that the definition of rape
contained in section 375 of the IPC would take in sexual assaults including
sexual acts committed between thighs of the victim.
The Bench made an observation that “Section 375 takes in,
sexual assaults beyond penile penetration into vagina, urethra, anus, and
mouth; the known orifices in the human body to which such penetration was
imaginably possible”.
The Honourable Court further observed that “any part of the body of such woman” as mentioned in Section 375(c) of the Indian Penal Code, brings within its ambit “a penile sexual act committed between the thighs held together; which do not qualify to be called an orifice”. The court said that when penetration was thus made in between the thighs held together, it would certainly, amount to "rape" as defined under Section 375 of IPC.