MANEESH Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner herein has been arrayed as the sole accused in the instant Crime No.357 of 2019 of Pazhayannur Police station, which has been registered for offences punishable under Sec. 376 of IPC and Secs.3 and 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act, 2012, on the basis of F.I Statement given by the minor victim girl on 01- 08-2019 at about 5.45 p.m, in respect of alleged incidents, which had happened on 05-05-2018 at 10.00 p.m. The petitioner has been arrested in this case on 02-08-2019 and after his remand, has been undergoing detention since then.

(2.) The prosecution case in short is that, the minor victim girl aged 16 years, is living with her paternal grand mother and that her parents are abroad and that through chatting and social media friendship, the minor victim girl, aged 16 years and the petitioner aged 22 years started an affair and that on 05-05-2018 at about 10.00 p.m petitioner/accused had come to her house without him being noticed by her paternal grand mother and then he had sexual intercourse with her at about 10.00 p.m on that day. It appears that the grand mother is started felt being suspicious about the girl's conduct in having frequent chatting and thereupon the matter was discovered and which led to the lodging of the F.I Statement.

(3.) The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner would point out that the abovesaid allegations are false and baseless and that even going by the prosecution allegations, there was a love affair between the petitioner/accused and the victim girl and that since the petitioner has already suffered detention for the last 83 days and as the investigation has almost with the fag end, no effective purposefully subserved by the continued detention and that he may be ordered to be released on regular bail, subject to stringent conditions.