Shailendra Singh, J.—Heard learned counsel for the Appellant, learned counsel for the Informant as well as learned APP for the State.

2. The present appeal has been preferred against the Judgment of Conviction dated 29.09.2021 and Order of Sentence dated 30.09.2021 passed by learned Additional District and Sessions Judge- VIth- cum- Special Judge, POCSO Act, Buxar in POCSO Case No. 35 of 2018 CIS No. 32/2018 arising out of Simri P.S. Case No. 148 of 2018.

3. The appellant stood charged for the offences punishable under Sections 376, 341, 323, 354B, 354C, 308, and 509 of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter referred to as “IPC”) and Section 4 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (hereinafter referred to as “POCSO Act”).

4. The learned trial Court held the appellant guilty of the offences punishable under Sections 376, 323, 341, 509 and 354B of IPC and Section 4 of POCSO Act and sentenced the appellant to undergo rigorous imprisonment for ten years with a fine of Rs. 20,000/- and in default of the payment of fine to further undergo simple imprisonment for six months for the offence of 376 of IPC, further sentenced him to undergo one year of simple imprisonment for the offence of 323 of IPC, further sentenced him to undergo three years of simple imprisonment with a fine of Rs. 5,000/- and in default of payment of fine to undergo additional simple imprisonment for one month for the offence under Section 354B of IPC and also sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for ten years with a fine of Rs. 25,000/- and in default of payment of fine to undergo additional six months of simple imprisonment for the offence punishable under Section 4 of the POCSO Act. All the said sentences have been directed to run concurrently by the Trial Court. The learned trial Court did not award separate sentence for the offences punishable under Sections 341 and 509 of IPC considering the said offences having been committed to complete the main offences.

5. The substance of prosecution’s case appearing from the written report (Exhibit-2) is as follows:—

On 26.06.2018 at about 3:30 P.M the victim, aged about 15 years, was going to take tuition in her neighboring Kharahatar village, when she reached near the house of her covillager namely, Chand Muni Devi then, suddenly her co-villager Akhilesh Turaha (Appellant) came and caught her from behind and forcefully took her inside a room of the house of one Lalan Kanu and thereafter, closed the door of the room and when the victim resisted, she was assaulted by the appellant, the victim also attempted to cry but the appellant pressed her mouth by putting his hand and after that pushed her down on the floor and removed her clothes and started raping her and then she anyhow cried but the appellant started sliting her throat by using a Garasa even then the victim continued to try to save herself from the appellant but the appellant caught hold her tightly and also started clicking her photographs and in the meantime on hearing her cry the daughter-in-law of Lalan Kanu came from inside of her house and made the appellant open the door of the room and thereafter, the appellant managed to escape and after that on hearing victim’s cry her mother, uncle namely, Ashok Chaurasiya and several co-villagers reached at the place of occurrence and brought the victim to her house.

6. With the above allegations the victim filed a written application Ext.-2 on 27.06.2018 at Simri Police Station, on that basis the formal FIR bearing Simri P.S. Case No. 148 of 2018 (Ext.-3) was registered under Sections 341, 323, 354B, 354C, 308, 376, 511 and 509 of IPC and Section 8 of the POCSO Act which set the criminal law in motion.

7. Mr. Manoj Kumar, learned counsel for the appellant has argued that the FIR is said to have been lodged on 27.06.2018, the next day from the date of commission of the alleged occurrence, but some material witnesses, who accompanied the victim to the police station, said that the FIR was lodged on 26.06