The court held that the uncorroborated testimony of a minor victim in a sexual assault case can sustain a conviction, provided it is credible.

JUDGMENT :

G.A. SANAP, J.

1. In this appeal, challenge is to the Judgment and order, dated 18.11.2022, passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Yavatmal, whereby the learned Judge convicted the appellant for the offences punishable under Sections 363, 506 and 376(2)(n) of the Indian Penal Code (for short, ‘the I.P.C.’) and also for the offence punishable under Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (for short, ‘the POCSO Act’). He is sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 3 years and to pay a fine of Rs.5,000/-, in default to suffer further rigorous imprisonment for six months for the offence punishable under Section 363 of the IPC, rigorous imprisonment for 3 years and to pay a fine of Rs.5000/-, in default to suffer rigorous imprisonment for six months for the offence punishable under Section 506 of the I.P.C., rigorous imprisonment for 10 years and to pay a fine of Rs.10,000/-, in default to suffer simple imprisonment for six months for the offence punishable under Section 6 of the POCSO Act. No separate sentence is awarded for the commission of offence punishable under Section 376(2)(n) of the I.P.C.

2. Background facts:

PW-1 is the victim girl. PW-2, informant is her father. The case of the prosecution, which can be culled out from the report and other materials, is that in the year 2017, the victim girl was studying in the 9^th standard at Ramabai Ambedkar Girls School at Yavatmal. She was staying in the hostel. Due to vacation, she had gone to her village. On 31.03.2017, at about 1.00 p.m. her father brought her back to Yavatmal and dropped her at the hostel. The victim went out of the hostel on the pretext of taking money from her father. By this time the father had left the said place. It is stated that when the victim was standing in front of the hostel gate, the appellant came there in the auto rickshaw. The appellant gagged the mouth of the victim and dragged her in the auto rickshaw. He carried the victim in the field in auto rickshaw on the side of Pandharkawada road. The auto rickshaw driver dropped the appellant and the victim in the field and went away. The appellant took the victim in the agricultural field and committed repetitive sexual intercourse with her. Next day morning, he brought the victim back to the hostel and dropped her near the hostel.

3. The father of the victim girl, before leaving for his native place, came back to the hostel at about 4.00 p.m. to meet the victim. He did not find the victim at the hostel. The watchman of the hostel informed the father that soon after he dropped the victim at hostel, she had followed him under the pretext of taking money from him. The informant made an inquiry with Shalini Madam, the in-charge of the hostel. Shalini Madam also informed him that the victim left the hostel as soon as he left the said place. The informant took the search of the victim. She was not found. Therefore, on the same day, he lodged the report at Police Station Wadgaon Road. It was a missing complaint. He suspected that some unknown person might have kidnapped his daughter. On the basis of this report, crime bearing No.320/2017 was registered.

4. On 01.04.2017 in the morning the victim came back to the hostel. The hostel in-charge Shalini Madam made an inquiry with her. The victim told her that she had gone to the house of her maternal uncle. The in-charge of the hostel made phone call to her father and informed him about the arrival of the victim at hostel. The pare