ABDUL RASSAQUE @ ADBU Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The sole accused in S.C.No.19 of 2015 on the files of the Additional Sessions Court-I, Manjeri has come up in this appeal challenging his conviction and sentence in the said case.

(2.) The victim in the case is a girl aged 14 years. The accusation against the accused is that on a day in the month of November 2012, the accused has committed rape on the victim girl in the vacant room attached to the house of one Abdul Samad near AMUP school, Varikkode, and thereby committed the offences punishable under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (the IPC) and Section 5(k) read with Section 6 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 15 witnesses on its side as PW1 to PW15 and proved through them 9 documents as Exts.P1 to P9. Among the witnesses examined on the side of the prosecution, PW1 is the doctor who examined the victim girl on 22.11.2013, PW3 is the Child Line Counsellor who interacted with the victim girl on 22.11.2013, PW5 is the Headmaster of AMUP school where the victim girl was pursuing her studies at the time of occurrence, PW6 is the teacher of AMUP school to whom the victim girl is stated to have disclosed the occurrence, PW9 is the victim girl, PW10 is the father of the victim girl, PW11 is the Police Official who prepared the scene mahazar in the case and PW12 is the Judicial Magistrate who recorded the statement of the victim girl under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (the Code). Among the documents proved, Ext.P1 is the report of the medical examination of the victim girl issued by PW1, Ext.P4 is the certificate concerning the age of the victim girl issued by PW5, Ext.P5 is the scene mahazar prepared by PW11 and Ext.P7 is the statement of the victim girl recorded under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.