IMPORTANT POINT
The victim's consistent statement, medical evidence, and corroborating witness testimonies are crucial in establishing the occurrence of the crime and the victim's age, even in the absence of eyewitnesses.

JUDGMENT :

Heard Mr. S.S.S. Rahman, learned counsel for the appellant; Mr. R.J. Barua, learned Additional Public Prosecutor for the State respondent No. 1; and Mr. R.S. Sadial, learned counsel for the respondent No. 2.

2. In this appeal, under Section 374(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code (‘Cr.P.C.‘, for short), the appellant has put to challenge the correctness or otherwise of the judgment and order, dated 14.06.2023, passed by the learned Special Judge (POCSO), Bajali Pathsala (‘learned trial court‘, for short), in Special (P) Case No. 12/2019, under Sections 342/366 of the Indian Penal Code (‘IPC‘, for short) and read with Section 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (‘POCSO Act‘, for short).

3. It is to be noted here that vide judgment and order dated 14.06.2023, the learned trial court has convicted the appellant under Section 4 of the POCSO Act and sentenced him to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 7 (seven) years and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/- with default stipulation and further convicted him under Section 342 of the IPC and sentenced him to undergo simple imprisonment for 1 (one) year and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/- with default stipulation and also convicted him under Section 366 of the IPC to undergo imprisonment for 7 (seven) years and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/- with default stipulation.

4. The background facts, leading to filing of this appeal, are adumbrated herein below:-

“On 18.05.2019, Smti ‘X‘ (name withheld), aged 14 years, went to house of her uncle, namely, Jamser Ali and when she was returning home, at about 6:30 pm, one Sarbat Ali, son of Inchan Ali of Katala Pathar, kidnapped her and confined her in an unknown place. On 19.05.2019, on receipt of an ejahar to that effect from one Innas Ali, the father of the victim, the Officer In-Charge (‘O.C.‘, for short) of Barpeta Police Station (‘P.S.‘, for short) registered a case, being Barpeta P.S. Case No. 1071/2019, under Section 365 of the IPC and entrusted Sub-Inspector Dibya Borgiyari, the In-Charge of Bhawanipur Police Out Post to investigate the case. Then the Investigating Officer (‘I.O.‘, for short) visited the place of occurrence, examined the witnesses and drawn up sketch map of the place of occurrence. He had also recovered the victim girl from the house of the accused and got her examined by Doctor and collected the report and also got her statement under Section 164 of the Cr.P.C. recorded in the court and then arrested the accused and forwarded him to the court. He had also seized one School Certificate of the victim girl, preparing seizure list. Then on completion of the investigation, he laid Charge Sheet (‘C.S.‘, for short), being C.S. No. 971/2019, against the appellant to stand trial in the court, under Section 365 of the IPC read with Section 4 of the POCSO Act. Thereafter, the appellant entered appearance before the learned trial court and then the learned trial court, having complied with the provision of Section 207 of the Cr.P.C. and after hearing both the sides, had framed charge against the appellant, under Sections 342/366 of the IPC read with Section 4 of the POCSO Act and on being read over and explained the same to the appellant, he pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried. Then in order to bring home the charges, against the appellant, the prosecution side has examined as many as 7 witnesses, including the I.O and the Medical Officer (‘M.O.‘, for short) and also exhibited as many as 6 documents and one School Certificate as Material Exhibit-1 and thereafter, the learned trial court had examined the appellant under Section 313 of the Cr.P.C. Then hearing argument of learned counsel for both the sides, the learned trial court had convicted the appellant under Sections 342/366 of the IPC read with Section 4 of the POCSO Act and sentenced him as aforesaid.”

5. Being aggrieved, the appellant has approached this Court by filing the present appeal for setting aside the impugned judgment and order dated 14.06.2023, pas