AMITKUMAR SATYANARAYAN KUSHWAH Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeal is preferred by the appellant/accused, who is aggrieved by the judgment and order dtd. 21/8/2021 passed by the learned Special Judge (POCSO), Gondia in Special Case No.12/2015. By the said judgment, the appellant was convicted for the offences punishable under Ss. 376, 354-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sec. 3 read with Sec. 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for three years and to pay a fine of Rs.3,000.00, in default to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one month, for the offence punishable under Sec. 354-A of the (IPC). The appellant was further sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for ten years and to pay a fine of Rs.10,000.00, in default to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one month, for the offences punishable under Ss. 3 and 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act). In view of provisions of Sec. 42 of the POCSO Act, the learned Special Judge imposed alternate punishment under Sec. 3 read with Sec. 4 of the POCSO Act instead of Sec. 376 of the IPC.

(2.) The prosecution case, in brief, is that on 23/12/2014, the victim had gone to her school at about 9.30 a.m. At about 1.30 p.m., the appellant allegedly went to the school and informed the victim that her brother was admitted in the hospital. Upon receiving this information, the victim was stated to have taken permission from the class captain, Neha Parteki, and left the school premises along with the appellant on his motorcycle.

(3.) The victim and the appellant proceeded to Government Hospital, Deori, where the victim's mother was present with her brother. The mother asked the victim to bring warm clothes from home. Accordingly, the victim again went home with the appellant, collected the clothes, and handed them over to her mother at the hospital. The victim informed her mother that she was returning to school.