The main legal point established in the judgment is the reliance on circumstantial evidence, including witness testimonies, last seen theory, recovery of clothes, extra-judicial confession, medical evidence, and expert opinions to establish the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt.

JUDGMENT :

M.S. Jawalkar, J.

1. The present appeal is filed by the accused being aggrieved by the Judgment and Order dated 06/04/2018 passed by the Children’s Court in Special Case No.52 of 2012 convicting the appellant under Section 363 of Indian Penal Code (“IPC”, for short) sentencing him to undergo simple imprisonment for a term of 3 years with a fine of Rs.5000/- in default simple imprisonment for 3 months. He further convicted the appellant under Section 376 of IPC r/w. 8(2) of the Goa Children’s Act, 2003 sentencing the appellant to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a term of 10 years with a fine of Rs.2,00,000/- in default to undergo simple imprisonment of 3 months. He further convicted the appellant under Section 302 of IPC and sentenced him to undergo life imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs.10,000/- in default to undergo simple imprisonment for a term of 6 months. Children’s Court also convicted the appellant under Section 201 of IPC sentencing him to undergo simple imprisonment for a term of 3 years and to pay a fine of Rs.3,000/- in default to undergo simple imprisonment for a term of 2 months.

2. The case of the prosecution before the Children’s Court was that on 20/05/2012 between 14.30 to 15.00 hours at Quepem, the accused kidnapped the minor daughter of Motiurrehman Khan from the lawful guardianship of her parents. The accused is also alleged to have committed rape and grave sexual assault on the minor girl and thereafter committed murder of the said minor girl. The accused thereafter dumped the body of the deceased in a lift void of the under construction building at Zoglamoddi, Quepem and thereby tried to destroy the evidence by putting an empty cement bag and sand on the dead body of the deceased.

3. As prima facie involvement of the accused was made out by the prosecution the Children’s Court after hearing the prosecution as well as the Counsel for the accused framed charges which are produced as below:

CHARGE

(Sections 221, 222, 223 of Cr.P.C.)

I Smt. Anuja Prabhudessai, President, Children’s Court for the State of Goa, at Panaji, hereby frame charge against you Deepak Kumar Ganesh Rai/Manto, s/o. Ranesh Rai/Manto, aged : 21 years, Occupation : Labour work, c/o. Gloria Rodrigues, Igramol, Quepem- Goa, n/o. Village Pachamba, Suhidnagar, Bebusrai, District – Bihar, as under :

That on 20.05.2012, between 14.30 to 15.00 hours, at Quepem, you kidnapped the minor girl (name disclosed to the accused), aged 4, d/o. Motiurrehman Khan, from the lawful guardianship of her parents and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 363 of IPC r/w. Section 8 of the Goa Children’s Act, 2003 ad within my cognizance.

That on the above, date time and place, you committed rape / grave sexual assault on the minor girl(name disclosed to the accused. You have thereby committed a offence under Section 376 of IPC and Section 2(y)(i) punishable under Section 8(2) of the Goa Children’s Act,2003 and within my cognizance

That on the above date, place and time, you committed murder of intentionally causing the death of said minor girl (name disclosed to the accused), and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 302 of IPC and within my cognizance, That on the above date, place and time mentioned hereinabove, knowing that you had committed rape and murder of the minor girl (name disclosed to the accused) punishable with Section 376 and 302 IPC and Section 8(2) of the Goa Children’s Act, 2003 has been committed, did cause evidence of said offence to disappear by dumping the body of the deceased minor in a lift void of the under construction building with the intention of screening yourself from legal punishment and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 201 IPC and within my cognizance.

And I hereby direct that you be tried by this Court on the said charges.

Sd/-

(Anuja Prabhudessai)

Panaji-Goa President

14.1.2013 Children’s Court for the State of Goa

4. Accused pleaded not guilty of the offences he was charged wi