The judgment emphasizes the importance of proving the victim's age, considering family dynamics, and evaluating the delay in filing the FIR in cases of sexual offences.

M.T. Joshi, J.

1. Heard both sides.

2. Aggrieved by the recording of the conviction by the learned Special Judge, Latur, vide judgment and order dated 30/07/2014 passed in Special Case (POCSO Act) No. 7 of 2013 for the offences punishable under section 376 of the Indian Penal Code and under section 4of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (for short "POCSO Act") and sentence to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 10 years on these counts and also of conviction for the offence punishable under section 506 of the Indian Penal Code and sentence to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 1 year, with direction to pay fine amount and with further direction to run the substantive sentences concurrently, the present appeal is preferred.

3. The prosecution case in short, is as under :-

That the victim P.W. 3, a 15 years old girl was subjected to forcible sexual intercourse by the present appellant in his own house in the night between 10/4/2013 and 11/4/2013. The F.I.R. regarding the same was filed by the mother of the victim P.W. 1 on 12/4/2013.

Admittedly, during the relevant period, the appellant with his family members consisting of his wife and son named as Shankar, were residing as the tenants in the ground floor of the house of the complainant and her family. The landlord family used to reside on the upper floor.

According to the prosecution, on 10/4/2013, the victim was sleeping in the house of the present appellant with the child -Shankar. In the night, the electricity was cut off at about 11.00 to 12.00 pm. At that time, the appellant and his wife were sleeping in the separate rooms. As the electricity was cut off, the appellant came into the room where the victim and his own son were sleeping. He started fanning his son by hand and, thereafter, gagged the mouth of the victim and committed forcible sexual intercourse with her. He threatened the victim that in case she divulged the incident to anybody, he would cause the death of the victim and her mother and would flee away to his home state Rajasthan. In the circumstances, the victim slept in the room itself under the apprehension.

In the morning, she returned to the upper floor house and did not speak about the incident to anybody for whole of the day. In the evening, the complainant mother went outside and at that time, the victim narrated the incident to her brother and father. However, none of them divulged the incident to the complainant -mother in the night. On the next day i.e. on 12/4/2013, when the complainant -mother went to her job in a college, at around 11:30 am, the husband of the complainant went to the college and narrated the incident to her. Therefore, the complainant took leave from the college and returned to her house and counseled the victim and got all the facts from her mouth and, thereafter, the complaint at Exhibit 22 was filed on 12/4/2013 at about 8:30 pm.

The crime was registered. P.W. 8 -A.P.I. -Sanjay Nanware has carried the investigation. He recorded the statement of the victim and sent her for medical examination. The appellant was arrested. Panchanama of the spot of occurrence was recorded. Bedsheet from the spot was seized under a panchanama as well as the clothes of the prosecutrix were also seized. On 16/4/2013, the present appellant made a statement leading to the production of his clothes like the trouser, banian and underwear. Those were seized. Those articles alongwith the nail clippings, pubic hair, vaginal swab, blood etc. of the prosecutrix, as received from the Medical Officer were also sent for chemical analysis.

P.W. 4 Dr. Varsha Pawar had examined the prosecutrix. She also arranged for x-ray photographs to determine the age of the victim. Upon examination of the x-ray photographs, she opined that the age of the prosecutrix would be between 14 to 16 years old. Besides this, the copy of the original admission register of the victim from Wale English School, Latur was collected, which would show that the victim was b