Compliance with procedural requirements under the NDPS Act is essential, but minor discrepancies do not invalidate credible evidence of possession and the conviction of accused.

JUDGMENT

A.D.JAGADISH CHANDIRA,J.

This Criminal Appeal is filed against the judgment of conviction and sentence passed by the Special Court for Exclusive Trial of Cases under POCSO Act, 2012, Dindigul in Spl.S.C.No.217 of 2023 dated 23.01.2024.

2. By the above judgment the trial Court had convicted the appellant and sentenced him, as detailed below:

As far as compensation to the victim girl is concerned interim compensation amount of Rs. 2,00,000/ has been awarded to the victim girl as per rule 7 of the Compensation Scheme for Women Victim Survivors of Sexual Assault and other Crimes 2018 Scheme or as per Social Welfare and Nutritious Meal Programme SW (5) (2) Department GO (MS).No.33 dated 03.10.2020 and the said compensation has to be paid to the victim girl by the Tamil Nadu Government within a period of 30 days from the date of receipt of copy of the judgment.

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3. The case of prosecution is that on 01-05-2022 at 19.45 hours when P.W.14 was in the police station P.W 1 had given a complaint Ex.P1, stating that his minor daughter XXX studying 10^th Standard in NPR Government High School had gone to the shop to buy paper at 09.00 am did not return home till 06.00 pm and that despite deligent search in the houses of relatives she was not found. He had thereby requested the police to find his missing daughter. Based on the complaint P.W.14 the Sub Inspector of Police registered a case in Crime No.109 of 2022 under “Girl Missing” and sent the First Information Report/Ex.P14 and the complaint to the Judicial Magistrate Court and other higher officials. Based on the same P.W.15 Sankareswaran, Inspector of Police took up the case for investigation registered by P.W.14 and went to the place of occurrence and in the presence of Suresh/P.W.4 and Chandraprakash and prepared Observation Mahazhar/Ex.P3 and Rough Sketch/Ex.P15. He then examined Eswaran/P.W.1, Tamil Selvi/P.W.3, Suresh/P.W.4, Chandraprakash and recorded their statements and sent the same to the Judicial Magistrate Court, Nilakottai. He then went in search of the missing victim, but he was unable to trace her. On 10.10.2022 at night, the victim was produced before the police station by her parents. Since it was late at night, the police asked her to come the next morning. On 11.10.2022, he examined the victim P.W.2, her mother P.W.3 and her father P.W.1 individually and recorded their statements. In that statement, the victim had stated about her love affair with the appellant and also the sexual assault. Thereafter, through the women police, the victim was sent to Dindigul Government Hospital for a medical check-up. On 11.10.2022, he altered the offence to Sections 5(l) r/w 6 of the POCSO Act and filed an alteration report/Ex.P16. On 12.12.2022, the father of the victim filed a Habeas Corpus Petition before this Court in HCP(MD) No.15686 of 2022. In that petition, he filed a report about having sent the victim for medical examination. On 28.10.2022, since the offence had been altered to under the POCSO Act, the case was transferred to All Women Police Station, Nilakottai as per the direction of the Deputy Superintendent of Police. Thereafter, P.W.16 Baby, Inspector of Police, All Women Police Station, while on duty, received the case records relating to Crime No. 109 of 2022 took up the case for further investigation and examined Eswaran, Tamil Selvi and the victim and recorded their statements. On 28.10.2022 at about 11.45 am, she arrested the appellant about 12.10pm and recorded the confession statement of the appellant in the presence of Suresh/P.W.4, Chandraprakash and obtained signatures from them. Thereafter, she sent the appellant for judicial custody. On 29.10.2022 at about 12.00 noon, she went to