The testimony of a victim of sexual assault is credible and can support conviction without corroboration, but the prosecution must prove the accused's knowledge of the victim's caste for SC/ST Act charges.

Judgment :

(Ramesh Sinha, CJ.)

1. Heard Mr. Y.C. Sharma, learned Senior Advocate along with Mr. Sachin Nidhi and Mr. Vishal Chandravanshi, learned counsel for the appellant as well as Mr. Malay Jain, learned Panel Lawyer appearing for the State/respondent.

2. This criminal appeal under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short, “Cr.P.C.”) arises out of the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 04.02.2021 passed by the learned Special Judge, SC/ST (PA) Act 1989, Bilaspur, District- Bilaspur (C.G.) in Special SC/ST (PA) Act 1989 Case no. 10/2018, whereby the accused-appellant has been convicted and sentenced as under :-

3. The prosecution story, in brief, is that, the informant Badan Singh is a resident of village Kumhari under police station Marwahi, presently in district Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi and works as a daily wage labourer. The informant has four children namely Nikhlesh 18 years, Om Prakash 16 years, Mahendra Singh 13 years and the victim 06 years. On 07.02.2018, the informant was at home, his wife Parvati had gone to work. The elder son Nikhlesh works in Pune and Om Prakash had gone to work on a tractor and Mahendra Singh had gone to play in the locality. The informant was cooking food in the evening and his wife was taking a bath after coming from work and the victim was playing in the courtyard of the house swinging in a swing made of sari cloth. The informant saw at around 06:00 in the evening that the girl/victim was not there, then he and his wife went out to look for the victim. Kamala Bai was filling water in the tap near Anganwadi, she told that a girl was crying on the Dongri/Choti Pahari, on which the informant left his wife there and went with Narendra Singh Paw of the village towards Dongri/Choti Pahari adjacent to Anganwadi. The informant was going ahead and Narendra Singh Paw was at some distance. The informant saw that the accused Pramod alias Nanhu Tiwari was sitting on the stone and had pulled down his lower and chaddi and had held a biscuit in the victim's hand and was putting his penis in the victim's mouth. The victim was crying on which the informant picked up the girl/victim and took her in his lap and scolded the accused asking why he did this but the accused did not say anything. When the informant brought the victim home at around 6:30 in the evening and asked her, the victim told that she was swinging in the courtyard of the house when the accused came and gave her a biscuit and picked her up and took her towards Dongri/Choti Pahari and put his penis in her mouth.

4. On the informant Badan Singh Paw lodging the first information report of the above mentioned nature in police station marwahi, Crime No. 19/2018 was registered under section 363, 376 IPC (Ex.P-3) and the case was taken into investigation. During the investigation, a map of the place of incident (Ex.P-4) and a spot map (Ex.P-15) were prepared by the Patwari. A notice (Ex.P-12) was served to the victim's father Badan Singh to present the caste certificate of the victim. Documents related to the caste and residence of the victim were seized in front of witnesses as Ex.P-19. The medical examination of the victim was conducted a