The petitioner herein has been arrayed as the sole accused in the

instant Crime No.1097/2019 of Muhamma Police Station, Alappuzha, registered for offences punishable under Sec.354A(1)(i) of the Indian Penal Code and Secs.9m & 10 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. The said crime has been registered on the basis of the First Information Statement given by the mother of the minor victim girl on 21.10.2019 at about 1.30 p.m., in respect of the alleged incident which happened on the previous day (20.10.2019) at about 3.30 p.m.

2. The prosecution case in short is that on 20.10.2019, the minor victim girl aged 10 years had gone along with her parents to visit her mother’s elder sister’s house and they had gone in their autorikshaw which was parked in the nearby road adjacent to the house of the victim girl’s mother’s sister and at about 3.30 p.m. on that day, when the minor victim girl and her cousin sisters were playing inside the said autorikshaw, the petitioner/accused aged 53 years had come near the victim girl and patted her thighs. The girl immediately reported the incident to her mother and after reachin