PARESH @ KAMLESH PRAKASH DHANVATKAR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant has challenged judgment and order dated 11/09/2017 passed by the Sessions Court, Nagpur (Trial Court in Special Child Criminal Case No.154 of 2015, whereby the appellant has been convicted for the offence punishable under section 354-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 8 and 12 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act) and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 4 years and 3 years for such conviction with amounts of fine to be paid in terms of the impugned judgment and order.

(2.) The prosecution case in brief is that the complainant (PW-1) Sandhya Suryawanshi lodged a report on 21/05/2015 in Police Station Panchpaoli, Nagpur, District Nagpur, alleging that on 17/05/2015 at about 130 p.m., when she had gone to the market with her mother-in-law, the appellant took her daughter behind Hanuman Temple and kissed her on lips and cheeks and thereafter he showed his private part to the child. The child victim PW-2 was scared and ran away from the place. The complainant PW-1 claimed that her daughter i.e. the victim PW-2 narrated the incident to her when she came back from the market and that the complainant then informed her husband and mother-in-law about the same.

(3.) It was claimed that report was lodged before the Police after about 4 days because the complainant PW-1 was scared of defamation of her daughter. On registration of the first information report (FIR) pursuant to the said oral report lodged by the complainant PW-1, the Investigating Officer PW-6 undertook investigation and recorded statements of witnesses, including the statement of the victim PW-2. The appellant was arrested on 22/05/2015 and he was sent for medical examination. On the basis of the material gathered during investigation, charge-sheet was submitted against the appellant.