යුක්තිය

6 වසර ඉගෙනුම ලබන 10 හැවිරිදි පිරිමි දරුවෙකු ''ටියුෂන්'' මුවාවෙන් කාමරයට ගෙන්වා අපයෝජනය කිරීමට වරදකරු කරනු ලැබූ, තංගල්ලේ, උස්වැව, වරාය, අංක: 719 පදිංචි සුජිත් ප්රෝසන්න හෙට්ටිආරච්චි නැමති ඉංග්රිිසි ගුරුවරයාට, ඇඹිලිපිටිය මහාධිකරණය ලබාදුන් වසර 12 ක බරපතල වැඩ සහිතිව සිර දඬුවම හා රු: 12,000/- දඩය සමග වින්දිත දරුවාට රු: ලක්ෂ 2 ක වන්දිය ගෙවන ලෙසට නියම කරමින් ලබාදුන්න තීන්දුව, 2023.07.11 දින අභියාචනාධිකරණය විසින් ස්ථිර කරනු ලැබීය. මෙම නඩු තීන්දුවේදී, ලිංගික අපයෝජනයට ලක්වන ළමුන්ගේ සාක්ෂි සම්බන්ධයෙන් ශ්රීම ලංකා අභියාචනාධිකරණය හා ඉන්දීය අධිකරණ ලබාදුන් තීන්දු 02 ක සඳහන් කරුණු අවධාරණය කර ඇත. "It was held in the Court of Appeal Case of D. Tikiribanda Vs. The Attorney General-decided on 06-10-2009 reported in Bar Association Law Reports 2010 (B.L.R.) 92 that; “Mostly the victims of sexual harassment prefer not to talk about the harrowing experience and would like to forget about the incident as soon as possible (withdrawal symptom). The offenders should not be allowed to capitalize or take mean advantage of these natural inherent weaknesses of small children.” At this stage, I find it appropriate to refer to the Indian case of Bhoginbhai Hirjibhai Vs State of Gujarat (AIR 1983-SC 753 at pp 756-758) very often cited in our Courts. It was held: Page 11 of 13 1) By and large a witness cannot be expected to possess a photographic memory and to recall the details of an incident. It is not as if a video tape is replayed on the mental screen. 2) Ordinarily, so happens that a witness is overtaken by events. The witness could not have anticipated the occurrence which so often has an element of surprise. The mental faculties therefore cannot be expected to be attuned to absorb the details. 3) Ordinarily, a witness cannot be expected to recall accurately the sequence of events which take place in rapid succession or in a short time span. A witness is liable to get confused or mixed up when interrogated later on. 4) A witness, though wholly truthful, is liable to be overawed by the court atmosphere and the piercing cross-examination made by counsel and out of nervousness mix up facts, get confused regarding sequence of events, or fill up details from imagination on the spur of the moment. The subconscious mind of the witness sometime so operates on account of the fear of looking foolish or being disbelieved though the witnesses is giving truthful and honest account of the occurrence witnessed by him – perhaps it is a sort of a psychological defense mechanism activated on the spur of the moment.