(1.) THE sole appellant Anand Kumar alias Munna, who stood trial for committing offence under Section 366A I.P.C., has been held guilty for the said offence and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years and imposed a fine of rupees three thousand, in default of which to undergo rigorous imprisonment for another six months in Sessions Trial No. 282/1997/172/2005 by learned Additional Sessions Judge, FTC III, Sitamarhi. He has filed this appeal for setting aside the order and judgment of conviction and sentence dated 4.9.2006.
(2.) THE prosecution case, in short, is that on 5.8.1996 at about 9.30 A.M. Pallabi Priya alias Putul Kumari, aged about 17 years, daughter of the informant, had left her house to attend her tuition classes at Sitamarhi in the coaching institute of Professor Anand Shekhar Singh (P.W. 2) and Professor Sandip Garg (P.W. 1) but did not come back till the evening and, as such, intensive search was made by Baidyanath Thakur, son -in -law of the informant, as also her family members but all in vain, with the result that Baidyanath Thakur lodged a sanha with the police at Mehsil outpost, on the basis of which, station diary entry was made on 6.8.1996. The said Baidyanath Thakur also informed his father -in -law (informant of the case) at Calcutta on telephone and on such information the information Chiranjibi Pd. Singh (P.W. 11) arrived Sitamarhi from Calcutta on the next evening and also made intensive search of his daughter and later on came to know that the appellant Anand Kumar alias Munna once had come with an unknown boy and disclosed his intention in presence of Raghvendra Kumar (P.W. 5) and Dharmendra Tiwari (P.W. 13) to marry Putul Kumari, the victim, daughter of the informant, and also expressed that in case such marriage did not materialize, he would kidnap Putul Kumari.
(3.) IN course of trial, 14 witnesses on behalf of the prosecution were examined. Out of them, P.W. 14 Jainath Sah is a formal witness, who proved formal FIR. P.W. 6 Bimlesh Kumar Thakur, P.W. 8 Ram Kishore Chaudhary and P.W. 13 Dharmendra Tiwary have turned hostile, who did not support the prosecution case inspite of the fact that they were cross examined by learned APP.