RAVI ANANDRAO GURPUDE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant is convicted for the offence punishable under Section 3 (a) punishable under Section 4 and for the offence under Section 5 (j) (ii) and 5 (l) punishable under Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, by the learned Special Judge, Warora on 21.04.2014 in Special (POCSO) Case No.2/2013 and directed that the appellant shall suffer imprisonment for life and pay a fine of Rs.5,000/- and in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months. The appellant is further convicted for the offence punishable under Section 506 of the IPC and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one year.

(2.) The prosecution case as it is unfolded during the course of trial is narrated hereunder:

(3.) We have heard Mr. Daga, learned counsel for the appellant and Mr. Jawade, learned A.P.P. for the State. The learned counsel for the appellant vehemently submitted that the prosecution has utterly failed to prove the age of the prosecutrix. In that view of the matter, he submitted that the conviction of the appellant for the offence punishable under the Act cannot stand to the scrutiny of law. Insofar as conviction under Section 506 of the IPC is concerned, he submitted that the evidence of the prosecutrix is not reliable for not disclosing the incident for a long time.