IMPORTANT POINT
The court affirmed that a victim's credible testimony can suffice for conviction in sexual assault cases, even without corroborative medical evidence.

JUDGMENT :

RAMESH SINHA, C.J.

1. The appellant has preferred this appeal under Section 374(2) of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short ‘Cr.P.C.’) questioning the impugned judgment dated 30.06.2023 passed by the Special Judge (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012) (for short ‘the POCSO Act’) Mahasamund (C.G.) in Special Criminal Case No. H-12/2023, whereby the trial Court has convicted and sentenced the appellant with a direction to run all the sentences concurrently in the following manner:

2. Case of the prosecution, in brief, is that, the complainant/mother of the victim (PW-2) filed a written complaint (Ex.P-1) in the Mahasamund Police Station that on 08.01.2023 at about 3:00 pm, her daughter/prosecutrix aged 08 years went to play in the vegetable market near her grandmother Rukmani Lanjewar’s shop. When she did not return till 5:00 pm, she searched around, when she could not find her, she informed her husband about this at 7:00 pm, who brought the prosecutrix home at 7:30 pm, then on questioning the prosecutrix, she told that Nehru Sahu, who used to live in the locality earlier, took her along with him by luring her to take a walk in the garden and took her to the field behind Gudrupara and took out his urine spot from his jeans and after removing the clothes of the prosecutrix, he was shaking it by putting it in the urine spot of the prosecutrix, due to which she is having pain in her waist. Based on the aforesaid written complaint, First Information Report (Ex.P-2) was registered against the accused/appellant at the Mahasamund Police Station under Crime No. 17/2023 for the offence punishable under Sections 363, 376(2)(a) (ii) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 4 of the POCSO Act.

3. During the investigation, the medical examination of the prosecutrix was conducted by Dr. Manisha Minj (PW-7) after obtaining consent from the mother of the prosecutrix vide Ex.P-3, the private parts of the prosecutrix were examined by the said doctor. After the examination of the private parts of the prosecutrix, the vaginal slide and underwear recovered were seized vide Ex.P-6. The accused was arrested vide Ex.P-7 and information of his arrest was sent to his family vide Ex.P-8. The Accused was also medically examined by Dr. Shailendra Pradhan (PW-4) vide Ex.P-4. Underwear of the accused was seized vide Ex.P-5. A site map of the incident was prepared by the police vide Ex.P-12 and by the patwari vide Ex.P-14. A memo (Ex.P-9) was sent to the Headmaster of Government New Girls School, Mahasamund for providing certified copy of the dakhil kharij register and the certified copy of dakhil kharij register (Ex.P-15C) was seized vide Ex.P-10. The slides and underwear seized in the case were sent to the forensic science laboratory for examination and therefrom, FSL report was obtained vide Ex.P-16. Thereafter, after recording the statements of the witnesses and completing the investigation proceedings, the final charge sheet was presented in the Court of Special Judge (POCSO Act’), Mahasamund (C.G.) for trial.

4. Charges were framed against the accused under the relevant Sections. When these were read out and explained to the accused, he denied committing the crime and demanded a trial. The accused declared himself innocent under section-313 of the Cr.P.C. and expressed that he would not give any evidence in his defence.

5. In support of its case, the prosecution has produced the statements of the prosecutrix (PW-01), mother of the prosecutrix (PW-02), father of the prosecutrix (PW-03), Dr. Shailendra Pradhan (PW-04), Lady Head Constable Bhagyawati Khan (PW-05), Assist