Burden of proof lies with prosecution to establish all aspects of an offense, particularly the minor status of the victim, which affects the conviction under sexual assault laws.

JUDGMENT :

RAJANI DUBEY, J.

1. This appeal under Section 374(2) of Cr.P.C. has been filed by the appellant against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 30.08.2019 passed by learned Additional Sessions Judge (FTC) & Special Judge (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012), North Bastar Kanker (C.G.) in Special Criminal Case (POCSO Act) No. 09/2019 whereby, the trial Court convicted the appellant for the offence punishable under Sections 363, 366, 506 (Part-II), 376 (3) of IPC and Section 4 of POCSO Act however keeping in view the provision under Section 42 of POCSO Act, he is sentenced as under:-

2. Case of the prosecution, in brief, is that on 03.01.2019, the father of the complainant/prosecutrix lodged an oral report at the Police Station- Kanker to the effect that there is a Laadi near his field, where there is a granary and after cutting the paddy crop, they had kept it in the granary and were threshing the paddy there. His wife, daughter/prosecutrix and son were staying with him in the granary Laadi. On 01.01.2019, at about 10-11 am, they had gone to the village with their family from Laadi to deliver paddy by buffalo cart. His daughter/prosecutrix was alone in the Laadi and after delivering the paddy, they had reached between 12:00-2:00 pm and after having dinner in the evening, they went to sleep with the family in the laadi. On the next day i.e. on 02.01.2019, his wife told him that Sirti Dar, a resident of Salehamat, took the prosecutrix to the forest near their laadi and committed forcible rape on her by intimidating her and threatening to kill her. On being asked, the prosecutrix narrated the same to her father. On the basis of said report, a case was registered for the offence punishable under Sections 376 and 506 of IPC against the appellant and FIR (Ex.P/5) was registered and as the incident occurred in Amabeda police station area, the case was transferred to Police Station- Amabeda. During investigation, the police prepared the spot map of the incident vide Ex.P/1 and the Patwari prepared the Nazri Map vide Ex.P/31 and Panchnama was prepared as per Ex.P/32 and sent the same to the Tehsildar. Thereafter, Medical examination of the prosecutrix was got done vide Ex.P/7. X-ray of the prosecutrix was done for determination of her age. Before the Judicial Magistrate First Class Bhanupratappur, the statement of the prosecutrix was recorded under Section 164 Cr.P.C. vide Ex.P/2. The seizures were made vide seizure memo (Ex.P/8, P/9. P/16, P/23 and P/25). The accused has been arrested vide arrest memo (Ex.P/26). The statements of the witnesses were recorded. The seized properties in the case were sent to the Regional Forensic Science Laboratory, Jagdalpur for chemical examination and the FSL report was obtained. After completion of usual investigation, charge-sheet was filed before the learned trial Court for the offence punishable under Sections 376, 506, 376(3), 363 and 366 of IPC. The learned trial Court framed the charges under Sections 363,