JALEEL Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The sole accused in S.C.No.701 of 2016 on the files of the Additional Sessions Court, Ernakulam has come up in this appeal challenging his conviction and sentence in the said case.

(2.) The accusation in the case is that during the 2012 Onam holidays of the victim girl aged 12 years who was studying in 8th standard then, the accused who is none other than her father, had sexual intercourse with her on several occasions, and thereby committed the offence punishable under Section 376(2) of the Indian Penal Code (the IPC ).

(3.) On the accused pleading not guilty of the charge levelled against him, the prosecution examined 16 witnesses on its side as PW1 to PW16 and proved through them 10 documents as Exts.P1 to P10. Among the witnesses, PW1 is the victim girl herself, PW2 is the wife of the brother of the accused, PW3 is the cousin brother of the accused, PW4 is the son of the elder brother of the accused, PW5 is a relative of the accused, PW7 is the doctor who examined the victim girl on 12.07.2016, PW9 is the Headmistress of the school where the victim girl was pursuing her studies, PW10 is the member of the Child Line at whose instance the crime was registered and PW11 is the youngest sibling of the victim girl. Among the documents proved, Ext.P1 is the First Information Statement given by the victim girl, Ext.P2 is the statement given by the victim girl under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (the Code), Ext.P3 is the report of the medical examination of the victim girl, Ext.P5 is the extract of the relevant page of the School Admission Register pertaining to the victim girl and Ext.P7 is the First Information Report in the case.