The instant appeal under Section 374[2], Code of Criminal Procedure [‘Cr.P.C.’, for short] is directed against a Judgment and Order dated 12.08.2022 [the State of Assam vs. Rajen Taye] passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Sonitpur, Tezpur in Sessions Case no. 88/2018. By the said Judgment and Order dated 12.08.2022, the accused-appellant has been found guilty of the offence defined in sub-section [5] of Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code [‘IPC’, for short] and he has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a term of 14 [fourteen] years and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/-, in default of payment of fine, to undergo simple imprisonment for 3 [three] months.

2. The case of the prosecution, in brief, was that the investigation was set into motion on receipt of a First Information Report [‘FIR’, for short] from one Laxman Mali on 28.12.2016. In the said FIR lodged before the Officer-in-Charge of Chariduar Police Station, the informant had inter alia alleged that at around 2-00 p.m. on 28.12.2016, the members of All Assam Adivasi Students Association [‘the AAASA’ or ‘the Association’, for short], Balipara Unit saw three children, belonging to Adivasi community, being taken awa