Journal Reading

Medico-legal Examination of
Accused of Alleged Rape CasesA Prospective Study
by Shrikant Sidram Shinge
Manish Baburao Shrigiriwar

Presentator:

Nurul Nikmah Nst

Tsamara Yumna
Farizal
Vidya Chatmayani
Pembimbing :
Dr. dr. Taufik Suryadi, Sp.F

Abstract
offences are
the most

Sexual
heinous crimes
against women.
This study aims at recording results of medical
examination and knowing injury patterns of alleged
sexual assault accused along with preserving
proper medico-legal evidence.

A consecutive series of 41 accused, were

examined in the head-to-toe manner including
genitals with careful medical examination, samples
were collected for chemical analysis.

Introduction

Among all the crimes, sex related crimes are

most barbarous and humiliating. Rape is
considered to be the most obnoxious and
gravest form of human right violation
For decades, the crime of rape has been
known as the easiest criminal allegation to
make by the alleged victim and the harder to
disprove by the defendant so that medical
examination becomes more valuable where
there is no other witness to the incident.

Material and Method

The current study was carried out at

Department
of
Forensic
Medicine
and
Toxicology, Indira Gandhi Government Medical
College,
Nagpur,
Maharashtra
during
September 2009 to October 2010.
41 accused in alleged sexual assault cases
with identification marks, date and time of
incident, age, marital status and relation with
the victim.


Cloth examination was done in the cases where
time elapsed between incidence and examination
was not more than 24 hours and without history of
change of cloth. General examination including
anthropometry, secondary sexual characters and
local examination of the genitals was done.
Injuries, if any, over the body were noted.
Materials needed for laboratory examination such
as blood, pubic hairs, fingernail clippings were
sent to the Regional Forensic Science Laboratory,
Nagpur, Maharashtra.

Results

Discussion

. The youngest accused was 15 years old and

oldest being 54 years. In Sagar M.S study had
64% cases from 16 to 25 years age group and
maximum age of the accused was 40 years.
This shows that sexually active males of
younger age were most commonly involved in
the act of sexual assault


In our study out of 41 accused 17(41.4%) were
married. In Sarkar S et al study had 86.32% unmarried
and 13.67% married accused. The involvement of
single unmarried males is more in such crime
As far as relation of the accused with the victim was
concerned we found that in 23(56.09%) cases the
accused was a friend of victim and 12(29.2%) accused
were known to the victim. In Sarkar S et al, had 44.4%
accused known to the victim, 30.76% accused were
close friends and 18.80% accused were strangers to
the victim


Only 08 (19.51%)
accused
of
alleged
rape were examined within 24 hours of
the incident. As many as 23 (56.09%) cases
were examined when more than 06 day. In
Sarkar S et al study 10% of the accused was
examined on the first day and 61.11% were
examined after 06 days.
The late reporting in this study is probably due
to the stigma and taboo regarding sexual
assault in this part of the world.


Most of injuries were present over the extra genital
areas in lower limbs followed by upper limbs.
One case had an injury over the penis as a tear at
the coronal Sulcus, which might have occurred due
to forceful sexual intercourse or disproportionate
size of penis and vagina.
Minimal struggle injuries may be due to the fact
that 85.36% of the accused were acquainted with
the victims implying that most of these acts were
consensual.


41 samples accused of alleged rape and sent
to the Regional Forensic Science Laboratory.
None of the samples of pubic hairs showed
presence of foreign hairs, semen or
spermatozoa. Also the analysis of fingernail
clipping of the accused was insignificant.
Similar results with insignificant laboratory
tests findings were found in Sarkar S et al [2]
study in which only 0.85% of the samples
were positive on analysis.

Discussion

Sexual violence is a tragedy, a serious human

right violation and a significant problem. The
biggest threat is from the known persons and
friends.
Medical faculty should follow the protocol for
examination and collection of evidence and
need for research on every aspect of the
sexual assault.


Thank you