The State of Rajasthan has come up in appeal feeling aggrieved by an order of acquittal recorded by the High Court of Rajasthan reversing the judgment of the Sessions Court which had found the accused-respondent guilty of an offence punishable under Section 376 Indian Penal Code and sentenced him to undergo seven years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs.2,000/- and to a further simple imprisonment of one year and nine months in default of payment of fine. According to the prosecution, G, PW2, the prosecutrix, was aged 15 years and was living in village BhaniaYana (Jaisalmer) with her father, mother and a younger sister. The family resided in a lonely hutment situated in a field. On 1.10.1993 at about 12 noon, the prosecutrix was alone in her hut busy washing clothes on a water pump. NK, the accused-respondent was known to the prosecutrix since before. He came to her and initially asked for water which she provided in a lota. The accused then asked for a knife for peeling the skin of a cucumber. The prosecutrix brought the knife and handed it over to him. When the prosecutrix was about to turn and go back, the accused caught hold of her . He twisted her hand on her back and forcibly took her to a nearby place called Bhitian, , i.e., a place surrounded by walls. The accused forced the prosecutrix to lie down on the ground, put his foot on her chest, closed her mouth with his palm, removed her lehenga upwards and then forcibly committed sexual intercourse with her. The prosecutrix offered resistance and tried to save herself but the respondent gagged her mouth by a towel pressed against her mouth. Having thus raped the prosecutrix, the accused-respondent went away to Thane, another village or another part of the same village. The prosecutrix reached back her home and narrated the entire incident to a woman, described as wife of Udai Singh and to her father, PW 10, who had returned by that time. The victim accompanied by her father wanted to go to the police station and lodge the first information report of the incident but they were prevented from doing so by several village people belonging to the community of the accused who also proposed the matter being settled within the village by convening a panchayat. However, report of the incident was lodged on 5.10.1993 at 11.20 a.m. The offence was registered and investigation commenced.