1. This Appeal is preferred by the Appellants-original accused who has been convicted by the learned Special Judge, Ambajogai in Special Case No. 06 of 2016, for the offence punishable under section 450 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for four years and to pay fine of Rs.1000/- and for the offence punishable under section 354A IPC and sentenced to suffer R.I. for two years and to pay fine of Rs.2000/-. The appellant/accused is further convicted under sections 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) and sentenced to suffer R. I. for three years and to pay fine of Rs.2000/-. All the sentences are to run concurrently.

2. PW2 namely Balu Gade, father of the victim (minor girl) lodged complaint to the police station on 06.03.2016 alleging that on 13.02.2016, when the victim was alone in the house of his brother-Aba Gade, at about 1.00 p.m, accused Hanumant gave a chocolate to the victim and inserted his finger into her vagina. Victim disclosed this fact to her father-PW2. However, so as to avoid defamation in the society, PW2 contacted other witnesses/villagers, went to the accused and enquired about the incident. At that time, accused apologized. Therefore, PW2 avoided to lodge criminal complaint.

On 05.03.2016 again, when victim was alone in the house, at about 2.00 p.m., the accused entered into the house and repeated the same thing i.e. inserted his finger into vagina of the victim, due to which, the victim shouted. Grandmother of the victim came there, so the accused ran away from the spot. On the basis of information given by the PW2, offence came to be registered against the appellant for the offence punishable under sections 376(2)(i)(j), 354, 354(A), 452 of the Indian Penal Code and under section 4, 8, 12 and 18 of the POCSO Act.

3. After registration of the crime, PW4 Investigating Officer visited the spot and prepared spot panchanama in presence of PW3 Vijay Gaikwad and after doing as usual investigation, he has submitted charge sheet before the learned Judicial Magistrate, First Class Ambajogai, who thereafter committed the case to the Special Court, Ambajogai. The learned Special Judge framed the charges against the appellant for the offence punishable under sections 450, 354A, 376(2) IPC and under sections 4, 6, 8 and 12 of the POCSO Act.

4. After recording evidence of the witnesses, statement of the accused under section 313 of the Cr. P.C. was recorded and after hearing the arguments, the trial court convicted and sentenced the accused as aforesaid. Hence this appeal is preferred by the accused-appellant challenging his conviction and sentence.

5. I have heard Mr. Nimbalkar, learned counsel appearing for the appellant and Mr. Gujrathi, learned APP for the respondent State at length. With their able assistance, I have carefully perused the entire notes of evidence.

6. In order to establish the charges leveled against the appellant accused, the prosecution has examined four witnesses viz. PW1 Victim at Exh.24, PW2 Balu Gade at Exh.25 father of the victim, PW3 Vijay Sheshrao Gaikwad as panchwitness to spot panchanama at Exh.29 and PW4 Investigating Officer Raosaheb Gangaram Gadekar at Exh. 32. Besides oral evidence of above witnesses, prosecution has also relied on FIR Exh.26 and Spot panchanama Exh.30.

7. On perusal of the evidence on record, it appears that in order to establish the alleged offence, evidence of the victim is very important and material. Evidence of other witnesses like PW3 and PW4 are of formal in nature. It is an undisputed fact that the victim was aged about six years at the time of incident and her evidence is recorded by the learned Special Judge in the form of question and answer, after verifying that witness is able to understand the questions and answer. From the evidence of victim it appears that she is a school going girl and at that time she was taking education in 2nd standard. At the relevant time, she had been t