K.GOVINDAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The sole accused in S.C.No.840 of 2014 on the files of the First Additional Sessions Court, Kasaragod has come up in this appeal challenging his conviction and sentence in the said case.

(2.) The accusation in the case is that from the year 2012, the accused has committed rape on the victim girl aged 12 years in a shed near her house at Adkathbayal Beach, and thereby committed the offences punishable under Sections 376(2)(f) , 376(2)(i) and 376(2)(n) of the Indian Penal Code (the IPC ) and Section 3 read with Section 4 and Section 7 read with Section 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (the POCSO Act).

(3.) On the accused pleading not guilty of the charges, the prosecution examined 13 witnesses on its side as PWs.1 to 13 and proved through them, nine documents as Exts.P1 to P9. Among the witnesses examined, PW1 is the Chairperson of the Kasaragod Child Welfare Committee, PW2 is the victim girl, PW3 is the elder sister of the mother of the victim girl, PW5 is the doctor who examined the victim girl on 19.05.2014, PW8 is the owner of the shed where the accused is stated to have committed sexual assault on the victim girl and PW12 is the investing officer in the case. Among the documents proved, Ext.P1 is the statement given by the victim girl to the Child Welfare Committee, which is treated as the First Information Statement in the case, Ext.P2 is the statement given by the victim girl under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (the Code) and Ext.P4 is the report of the medical examination of the victim girl conducted by PW5.