SHIJU Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The sole accused in S.C. No.503 of 2017 on the files of the Additional Sessions Court, Ernakulam has come up in this appeal challenging his conviction and sentence in the said case.

(2.) The accusation in the case is that on 02.11.2016, at about 8 am, the accused, who is the cousin brother of the victim minor girl aged 15 years, sexually assaulted the victim girl by penetrating his penis and inserting his finger into her vagina and also by sucking her breast. The offences alleged against the accused are the offences punishable under Sections 376(2)(f) and 376(2)(i) of the Indian Indian Penal Code (the IPC) and Section 5(n) read with Section 6 and Section 9(n) read with Section 10 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (the POCSO Act).

(3.) On the accused pleading not guilty of the charges levelled against him, the prosecution examined 17 witnesses as PW1 to PW17 and proved through them 15 documents as Exts.P1 to P15. Among the witnesses examined on the side of the prosecution, PW1 is the victim girl herself, PW2 is the doctor who examined the victim girl after the occurrence on the same day, PW4 is one of the teachers in the school where the victim girl was pursuing her studies, PW5 is the headmistress of the school, PW6 is the mother of the victim girl, PW7 is the village officer who prepared the site plan, PW9 is the attester to Exts.P6 and P7 seizure mahazars, PW10 is the Child line Member who reported the incident to the police on receiving information from the school. PW11 is a sister of the father of the victim girl, PW12 is another sister of the father of the victim girl and PW13 is the investigating officer in the case. Among the documents proved, Ext.P1 is the statement given by the victim girl under Section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (the Code), Ext.P2 is the report of the medical examination issued by PW2, Ext.P5 is the site plan prepared by PW7, Ext.P13 is the statement given by the victim girl under Section 164 of the Code, Ext.P14 is the report of the forensic science laboratory concerning the dress allegedly worn by the accused and the victim girl at the time of occurrence.