SHAHEES Vs. STATE REP. BY THE INSPECTOR OF POLICE, W25, ALL WOMEN POLICE STATION, T. NAGAR, CHENNAI 600017 (CRIME NO.2 OF 2013)

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant is the sole accused in S.C. No. 247 of 2013 on the file of the learned Sessions Judge, Magalir Neethimandram, Chennai. He stood charged for offences under Sections 376(f)(g), 324 and 506(i) of Penal Code and Sections 5(g) and 6 of The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 [In short, the POCSO Act ]. The trial court, by judgment dated 22.12.2014, convicted the accused under Sec. 5(g) and 6 of The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 and under Sec. 324 of IPC. The trial court, however, acquitted the accused from the charge under Sections 376(f)(g) and 506(i)of IPC. For the offence under Sec. 324 of IPC, the trial court sentenced the accused to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years and for the offence under Sec. 5(g) and 6 of the POCSO Act sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life. Challenging the above said conviction and sentence, the accused has come up with this criminal appeal.

(2.) The case of the prosecution in brief is as follows:-

(3.) On 16.01.2013 at 10.30 a.m., in the usual course, the child was left in the custody of the accused in the shop by P.W.1. By about 02.00 p.m. on the same day, it is alleged that the accused took the child behind the garments rack fixed in the garments shop of the accused, undressed her, hugged her and bite her and also sexually exploited her by inserting his penis into her vagina. One Mr. Mohammed Kani, who was a juvenile accused and was working under the accused, aided him to commit the said crime. Since the child cried out of pain, in order to make her silent, it is alleged that the accused attacked her with stick and also criminally intimidated her not to shout and not to disclose about the occurrence to anybody. According to the further case of the prosecution, at 07.30 p.m., P.W.1 took back her child [P.W.1] from the shop to her house. She found that there were injuries on the person of the P.W.12. When she inquired, the child told that the accused and juvenile accused-Mohammed Kani had sexually exploited her and attacked her. It is the further case of the prosecution that on 17.01.2012 P.W.1 took the child to Kanchi Kamakoti Child Trust Hospital at Chennai. On intimation from the hospital, on 17.01.2012, P.W.21, the Inspector of Police, All Women Police Station, Thiyagaraya Nagar, went to the hospital, recorded a statement from P.W.1 and on returning to the police station, she registered a case in Crime No.2 of 2013 under Sections 324, 354, 376, 511, 506(ii) of Penal Code and Sections 7 r/w 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 against the accused and the juvenile accused-M. Mohammed Kani. Ex.P.1 is the complaint and Ex.P.14 is the FIR. She forwarded both the complaint and the FIR to the court and took up the case for investigation.