The court emphasized the necessity of corroborative evidence in sexual assault cases involving minors, ruling that the victim's unreliable testimony alone is insufficient for conviction.

JUDGMENT :

(A.Y. KOGJE, J.)

1. The present appeal is filed by the State of Gujarat against judgment and order of acquittal dated 23.08.2024 passed by the Special Judge, POCSO Court & 10^th Additional District Judge, Surat in Special (POCSO) Case No.125 of 2021. By the said judgment, the Special Court acquitted the respondents-accused for offences under Sections 363, 366, 376(2)(N), 354, 354(A)(1)(1), 354(A)(1)(2), 354(2), 354(B), 354(D)(1)(1), 376(2)(J), 506(1) and 34 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3(A) (C), 4, 5(L), 5(J)(2), 6, 7, 8, 9(L), 10, 16 and 17 of the POCSO Act.

2. By order dated 03.02.2025, while the Records and Proceedings was called for, the Court recorded that there appears to be overwhelming evidence in support of the defence to the extent that the parents of the prosecutrix have not supported the case of the prosecution and even the victim herself, though not declared hostile, has not supported the case of prosecution.

3. Learned APP for the appellant-State submitted that the judgment and order of the Special Court is based on inferences and also on presumptions. It is submitted that the Special Court has failed to appreciate cumulative effect of the evidence led by the prosecution in support of its case.

3.1 It is submitted that the date of birth of the victim was 02.03.2004 and the incident took place on 02.02.2021 and therefore, she was less than 17 years of age at the time of incident. It is submitted that the victim, PW No.5 in her deposition at Exh.70 has clearly deposed that the respondents were staying in the same building as that of the victim and accused No.1-Paras Charola abducted her with help of accused Nos.2 and 3 and taken her to various places like Ahmedabad, Junagadh, Keshod, Rajkot, Amreli, Chalala, Surat, etc. and repeatedly committed sexual intercourse with her against her will and made her pregnant, which was later on terminated by the order of the Court. Thus, the victim has clearly supported the case of prosecution.

3.2 It is submitted that mother of the victim, PW No.3, Exh.57 in her deposition has clearly stated that victim was traced after a period of more than one and half months. It is submitted that the mother in her deposition has further stated that accused No.1-Paras gave the victim assurance to marry her and committed sexual intercourse and ultimately did not marry her.

3.3 It is submitted that the Special Court has also not taken into consideration the medical evidence, wherein it is clearly coming out that sexual intercourse was committed to the victim.

3.4 It is submitted that as the victim was minor at the time of incident, as per various judgments of the Supreme Court, her consent becomes irrelevant.

4. As stated hereinabove, R & P was called for under order dated 03.02.2025, which was received. The Court has perused R & P with the help of learned APP.

5. From the record it appears that it is a case where the mother of the victim i.e. informant had filed FIR on 09/02/2021, wherein it is stated that on 02/02/2021, she was at home with her family at evening and after taking meal at night, she and her family were sleeping at home and after midnight on 03/08/2021 at 4:30 a.m., her mother-in-law was awake and her victim daughter was not found in the bed and after searching in the house, victim daughter was also not found in the house. Thereafter, they have tried to open main gate of house, but was closed from outside. Hence, her husband had called his friend to open the door. Thereafter, they called their relatives to search victim daughter. They also searched her victim daughter in the society and also searched in the nearby area, but her victim daughter was not found. After coming home, she has found one note below victim's pillow in which, Mobile No.9512297555 was written and it was found that the mobile number is that of the accused, residing on the 2nd floor of their building. After searching, the accused was also not found at his house. After asking the Watchman, found that th