JUDGMENT

ABHAY S. OKA, J.

FACTUAL ASPECTS

1. Criminal Appeal no. 1451 of 2024 has been preferred by the State of West Bengal, aggrieved by the judgment and order dated 18th October 2023, passed by a Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature at Calcutta. The learned Special Judge appointed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (for short, ‘the POCSO Act’), Baruipur, South 24 Parganas, convicted the accused for the offences punishable under Section 6 of the POCSO Act and Sections 363 and 366 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short, ‘the IPC’). For the offence punishable under Section 6 of the POCSO Act, the accused was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for twenty years and pay a fine of Rs.10,000/-. He was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for four and five years, respectively, for the offences punishable under Sections 363 and 366 of the IPC. Though the learned Special Judge under the POCSO Act concluded that the accused was guilty of the offences punishable under clause (n) of sub-section (2) and sub-section (3) of Section 376 of the IPC, in view of the sentence imposed for the offence punishable under Section 6 of the POCSO Act, no separate