JUDGMENT :

S.V. PINTO, J.

1. These appeals have been filed by the appellants – original accused under Section 374 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 against the judgement and order of conviction passed by the learned 5th Additional Sessions Judge & Special Judge (POCSO), Rajkot at Dhoraji (hereinafter referred to as “the learned Trial Court”) in Special (POCSO) Case No. 4/2022 on 25.01.2024, whereby, the learned Trial Court was pleased to convict the appellants and sentence the appellants to simple imprisonment of 1 month and fine of Rs. 1000/- each and in default, simple imprisonment for 15 days for the offence punishable under Section 323 read with Section 34 of Indian Penal Code, 1860, rigorous imprisonment of 3 years and fine of Rs. 1000/- each and in default, simple imprisonment for 3 months for the offence punishable under Section 354A read with Section 34 of Indian Penal Code, 1860, rigorous imprisonment of 3 years and fine of Rs. 20,000/- each and in default, simple imprisonment for 6 months for the offence punishable under Section 8 of The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 (hereinafter referred to as the “POCSO Act” for short), rigorous imprisonment of 5 years and fine of Rs. 20,000/- each and in default, simple imprisonment for 1 year for the offence punishable under Section 10 of the POCSO Act. All the sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

1.1 Criminal Appeal No. 545 has been filed by the original accused no. 1 and Criminal Appeal No. 1042/2024 has been filed by the original accused no. 2 against the same impugned judgement and order passed by the learned Trial Court in Special (POCSO) Case No. 4/2022 on 25.01.2024 and hence, both the appeals have been disposed of by this common judgement.

1.2 The appellant of Criminal Appeal No. 545/2024 and appellant of Criminal Appeal No. 1042/2024 are referred as the accused in the rank and file as they stood in the original case for the sake of convenience, clarity and brevity.

2. The brief facts that emerge from the record of the case are as under:

2.1 The complainant - the mother of the victim had a dispute with her husband and had taken a divorce from him. Out of their wedlock, they had two children, a son and a daughter and she left the son with her husband and brought the daughter, who was aged three years and three months at the time of the incident and came to reside with the accused no. 1 as she was in a relationship with him. On 06.02.2022, the accused no. 1, complainant and the minor daughter came to reside at the house of the accused no. 2 at Patan Vav. On 07.02.2022, at around 10.00 am, both the accused started assaulting the victim and she started crying and the complainant intervened and took her away from the custody of both the accused. On 09.02.2022, at around 11.00 pm, the minor daughter was sleeping on the bed and she saw the accused no. 2 putting his hands in the leggings of the victim. The victim started crying and in the presence of the complainant, both the accused started beating the victim. She forcibly took the victim to the inner room and found that she had sustained injuries on her face, back portion and private part. She took the victim to various hospitals for treatment and a complaint under Sections 323, 354, 506, 114 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Sections 8, 9(i)(m) and Section 10 of the POCSO Act was registered at the Patan Vav Police Station at C.R. no. 11213043220074/2022 on 18.02.2022.

2.2 The Investigating Officer recorded the statements of the connected witnesses and seized the necessary documents and after completion of investigation, a charge sheet came to be filed before the Sessions Court, Rajkot and the case was registered as Special (POCSO) Case No. 4/2022.

2.3 The accused were duly served with the summons and the accused appeared before the learned Trial Court and after the procedure under Section 207 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 was followed the learned Trial Court heard the arguments of learne