MP High Court: discharge needs only a prima facie case, and upper-caste accused is essential to an SC/ST Act charge

The High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Indore dismissed the State's appeal against an order discharging a man, Iqbal, from charges of kidnapping under Section 363 IPC, penetrative sexual assault under Sections 7/8 of the POCSO Act, 2012, and an aggravated offence under Section 3(ii)(v) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, arising from Dhar district. The prosecution's case was that in 2015 he took away a 17-year-old girl. Justice Alok Awasthi held that at the stage of framing charge, a court must examine the investigation material only to see whether it discloses a prima facie case, even a strong suspicion is enough, and need not weigh evidence as at trial; but where the material, taken at face value, does not disclose the basic ingredients of the alleged offence, discharge is proper.

Here, the girl's own statements, read with her family's, showed she left home on her own, without inducement or force, so kidnapping was not made out; no medical examination or other material supported the sexual assault allegation; and the SC/ST Act charge failed because that provision requires that the accused does not himself belong to a Scheduled Caste or Tribe and has committed, against a person of that community with knowledge of their caste, an IPC offence punishable with ten years' imprisonment or more, an ingredient never even alleged here. The discharge order was affirmed and the appeal dismissed.