JUDGMENT :

Sanjay Kumar Jaiswal, J.

1. This criminal appeal filed by the appellants under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as “Cr.P.C.”) is directed against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 24.08.2017 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, F.T.C. Janjgir, District Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh in Sessions Trial No.181 of 2015, whereby the appellants have been convicted under Section 376D of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereinafter referred to as “IPC”) and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 20 years with fine of Rs.20,000/- to each of the appellants, in default of payment of fine, additional rigorous imprisonment for 6 months to each of the appellants.

2. Under the impugned judgment in question, appellants were acquitted by the trial Court for the offence punishable under Section 67A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (hereinafter referred to as “I.T. Act”).

3. The allegations against the present appellants are that, on 10.07.2015, at about 2:15 PM in Village Devarghata within the ambit of Police Station Shivrinarayan, District Janjgir-Champa, they have committed gang-rape with the prosecutrix without her wish and consent and also published/distributed obscene pictures of the said incident through electronic devices.

4. The case of the prosecution, in a nutshell, is that the prosecutrix (PW-12), aged about 12 years, who worked in NGO, had gone to village Devarghata with her former acquaintance friend Tinkeshwar Tandon (PW-5) and after visiting the temple, they went to the river side. While they were sitting on the sand, appellants came along with a delinquent child, abused Tinkeshwar Tandon (PW-5), beat him up, drove him away and after pushing the prosecutrix (PW-12) on the ground, they removed her clothes and forcibly committed gang-rape with her. The video of one of the incidents was also prepared from a mobile phone. Later, Tinkeshwar Tandon (PW-5) came there, as marriage of prosecutrix was fixed. They were scared as the appellants had threatened to make the obscene video viral and due to the said fear, they neither reported to the police nor narrated the incident to their home. After few days, prosecutrix (PW-12) got information from her friends about the obscene video going viral, then she informed her family about the incident. Thereafter, a named written report was lodged on 25.07.2015 at Police Station Shivrinarayan vide Ex.P/10 against the appellants, upon which, First Information Report was registered vide Ex.P/17 and medical examination of prosecutrix (PW-12) was conducted. Dr. Anvita Dhruv (PW-11) conducted the medical examination of prosecutrix and in her report (Ex.P/8), no definite opinion was given regarding forceful intercourse/rape. Statements of witnesses were recorded and spot map was prepared vide Ex.P/3. Undergarments of both the parties were seized and sent for its chemical examination to the FSL. In the FSL report (Ex.P/39), semen stains and human sperm were found on the underwear of appellants Kishan Turkane and Lalit respectively. No semen stains and human sperm were found on the underwear of prosecutrix. On 31.07.2015, Dinesh Kumar Chincholkar, Tehsildar (PW-15) has conducted test identification parade of the accused along with other persons, which was done by the prosecutrix (PW-12) in District Jail, Janjgir, for which, identification memo was prepared vide Ex.P/15. Thereafter, appellants were arrested vide Ex.P/20 to Ex.P/22 & Ex.P/36. After completion of the investigation, charge-sheet was filed against the appellants.

5. During the course of trial, in order to bring home the offence, prosecution has examined as many as 17 witnesses and exhibited 41 documents. Statements of the appellants were recorded under Section 313 of Cr.P.C., in which, they denied the circumstances appearing against them in the evidence brought on record by the prosecution, pleaded innocence and false implication. However, in defence, a