The main legal point established in the judgment is that complete penetration is not necessary to establish the offense of rape, as per the interpretation of the definition of rape under the Indian Penal Code.

JUDGMENT

S.K. Sahoo, J. - The appellant Prafulla Mundari @ Pelka faced trial in the Court of learned Addl. Sessions Judge -cum- Special Judge, Sundargarh camp at Rourkela in Special G.R. Case No.417 of 2013/Trial No.29 of 2017 for commission of offences punishable under section 376(2)(i) of the Indian Penal Code and section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (hereafter POCSO Act) on the accusation that he committed rape on the victim girl, who was aged about eight years at the time of occurrence, in a dilapidated house situated at village Lindra under Bisra police station in the district of Sundargarh.

The learned trial Court vide impugned judgment and order dated 21.03.2018 found the appellant guilty of both the charges and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for ten years and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/- (five thousand), in default, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months for the offence under section 376(2)(i) of the Indian Penal Code. No separate sentence was awarded for the conviction of the appellant under section 6 of the POCSO Act in view of the provision under section 42 of the said Act.

2. The prosecution case, as per the first information report lodged by one Minaketan Mundari (P.W.10), the father of the victim before the Inspector in-charge of Bisra police station on 24.02.2013 is that on that day in the afternoon at about 03.00 p.m., the appellant called the victim girl who was aged about eight years to a dilapidated house and opened her pant and committed rape on her and after the occurrence, the victim returned home and disclosed about the incident crying before her mother.

On the basis of such first information report, Bisra P.S. Case No. 20 dated 24.02.2013 was registered under section 376(2)(h) of the Indian Penal Code and section 4 of the POCSO Act. P.W.14 Subodha Kumar Mallik, Inspector in-charge of Bisra police station after registration of the case, took up investigation, examined the victim, informant, mother of the victim and other witnesses, seized the wearing apparels of the victim girl, sent the victim girl for her medical examination to Bisra C.H.C., arrested the appellant on 24.02.2013, seized the wearing apparels in presence of witnesses, sent the appellant to Bisra C.H.C. for medical examination, visited the spot and prepared the spot map, seized the biological samples of the victim girl collected by the medical officer, forwarded the appellant to the Court on 25.02.2013 and made a prayer to the Court for dispatch of the exhibits to the R.F.S.L., Sambalpur for chemical examination, received the medical examination reports of the victim as well as the appellant and on completion of investigation, submitted charge sheet on 30.05.2014 under section 376(2)(i) of the Indian Penal Code and section 4 of the POCSO Act against the appellant.

3. The defence plea of the appellant is one of denial and it is pleaded that there was civil dispute between both the families for which a false case has been foisted against him.

4. Initially, the learned trial Court framed charges under section 376(2)(i) of the Indian Penal Code and section 4 of the POCSO Act on 24.03.2015, but subsequently on 19.03.2018 charge was reframed under section 376(2)(i) of the Indian Penal Code and section 6 of the POCSO Act against the appellant and since the appellant refuted the charges, pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried, the sessions trial procedure was resorted to prosecute him and establish his guilt.

5. During course of trial, in order to prove its case, the prosecution has examined as many as fourteen witnesses.

P.W.1 Rajgobind Mahali stated that the wearing apparels of a girl were seized in his presence by police and his signatures were taken in two documents.

P.W.2 Mahendra Mahali is a witness to the seizure of wearing apparels of the victim and the appellant such as top, pants, T shirt and gamucha vide seizure lists Exts.1/1 and 2/1 respectively. He further stated that when a ga