ORAL JUDGMENT

(PER : HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE R. T. VACHHANI)

Criminal Confirmation Case No.4 of 2022 is filed seeking confirmation of the death sentence awarded to the accused by the judgment and order dated 17/03/2022 passed in Special (POCSO) Case No. 27 of 2021 by learned Additional Sessions Judge & Special POCSO Judge, Kheda at Nadiad. The accused has been convicted and sentenced as under:

2. The convict has also preferred Criminal Appeal No.1525 of 2024 against said judgment and order of conviction and sentence and therefore, the Criminal Confirmation Case and the said appeal of the convict is heard and decided together by this common judgment.

Case of the Prosecution:-

3. The complainant, Rajuben w/o Sanjaybhai Ravjibhai Solanki, was residing with her family at Lasundra, Vajpayee Nagar, near the canal, Taluka Kathlal, District Kheda, and was doing house hold work. Her husband works as a driver at Torrent Power in Ahmedabad and they have three children. Among them, the victim daughter is 6 years old. She was enrolled in the 1st standard but due to the schools being closed because of Corona, she was not attending the school. That on 03/03/2021, at around 7:30 a.m., in the morning, her husband had left for his job in Ahmedabad and she alongwith her children were at home. After preparing food and giving it to her children, she left home at around nine 9 O’clock in the morning for the work of picking tobacco leaves in the field near Lakshmipura and her three children were playing near house as there was a wedding of Raijibhai Chaturbhai Solanki's daughters nearby. When the complainant returned home from the field at Five O’clock in the evening, at that time, her daughter was playing in the courtyard. Upon seeing her, her daughter came to her crying and her leggings and inner clothes were found wet and she continued crying and was trembling, as also unable to speak anything. The complainant therefore checked bathroom and found her daughter's leggings lying in wet condition, so also the top was lying in wet condition having bloodstains. Thus, the complainant removed the leggings of her daughter worn by her due to wet and bleeding. Upon checking, the complainant found that blood was coming from her daughter's genital area and she calmly reassured her daughter and asked her to which her daughter told her while crying that "when she left them and went to the field in the morning, after they took lunch, Bhotho, Kiran, and she was playing 'catch and run' under the neem tree in the courtyard; at that time, Langho (Jayantikaka), who lives in our courtyard, was sleeping on a cot in front of his house had called her by saying that he will give you some tamarind (aambli).' When she went near his cot, he said, the tamarind (aambli) is inside the house and she was asked to come inside the house where he grabbed her hand and took her to the back area inside his house, behind the partition and then pushed her on the floor, took off the leggings she had worn and thereafter pressed her mouth with one hand and climbed on her and did something wrong act with her. After some time, the blood started coming out of her urinating area and started burning. Thereafter, Langho gave her ten rupees by saying that if she tells this to anyone, he will do this again and she was therefore scared. As per the complainant, her daughter stated these facts to her and thereafter immediately she called her husband and informed about this fact. The complainant also put her daughter's leggings and the top in a bag, and then informed her family members about the incident. Thereafter, her husband came home at around 8:00 p.m. and gave a complaint above the aforesaid incident.

4. The complaint was given by the complainant on 3/09/2021, before Senior Police Sub-Inspector D.C. Raol at Kathlal Police Station. Based on the complainant's report, Kathlal Police registered the offence u/ss 363, 376(AB) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 5(m), 6 of The Protection of Children from Se