VIGNESH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Criminal Appeal arises out of the impugned judgment dated 08.12.2017 in C.C.No.13 of 2015 convicting and sentencing the appellant for an offence under Section 9 (m) r/w 10 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act on the file of the Mahila Court, Coimbatore. The appellant has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 5 years. He has also been directed to pay a fine of Rs.2,500/- and in default in payment to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a further period of 3 months.

(2.) Following charges were framed against the appellant on 13.2.2015:-

(3.) Before the Trial Court, 14 witnesses were examined and 16 exhibits were marked by the respondent state. The mother of the minor victim defacto complainant PW1 in Exhibit P1 complaint dated 20.12.2014 had stated that on the said date she had left the minor victim in the courtyard of her house to play and when she went to attend to the other infant child inside the house, the appellant had taken the minor to his house and had committed sexual assault. She stated that she heard the minor victim crying and therefore went looking for her and found that her minor child was inside the appellant's house locked and tried opening the door. Hearing the commotion the neighbours gathered and they decided to enter the appellant's house from the rear side but by that time the appellant himself opened the locked door.