JUDGMENT :

1. The appellant is challenging the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 3.2.2017 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Khairagarh, District Rajnandgaon in ST No.11/2014 whereby the learned Additional Sessions Judge convicted the appellant under Section 376 (1) of the IPC and sentenced him to undergo RI for 10 years and to pay a fine of Rs.1,000/-, in default of payment of fine to further undergo additional RI for 1 month.

2. The prosecution case is that on 18th October, 2014, the prosecutrix (PW- 11), aged about 14 years, was residing along with two small children in the house of her maternal uncle Churaman Verma (PW-1) at village Salhewara, PS Gatapar. The appellant, who is known to the family, came to the house and asked about her maternal uncle. When she informed that all of them had gone to the field for cutting Soyabeen crop, the appellant took the prosecutrix to the forest behind her house and when she cried, the appellant stuffed her mouth with a piece of cloth and committed rape. When Churaman Verma (PW-1) returned from the field in the evening, he found that the victim was sleeping and when they tried to wake her up, she did not respond and also