DHANNARAM ALIAS DHANIA BHILL Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is filed by the accused who has been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment and fine of Rs. 2,00,000/- in default further two years rigorous imprisonment, for the offence punishable under section 8(2) of the Goa Children's Act, 2003 ("said Act" for short), by Judgment and order dated 29/09/2008/06/10/2008, passed by the learned President of the Children's Court for the State of Goa, at Panaji ("trial judge", for short) in Special Case no. 12 of 2007.

(2.) The accused was tried for the offence, of grave sexual assault described under section 2(y)(i) of the said Act read with rape described under section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (I.P.C.), punishable under section 8(2) of the said Act read with section 376 of I.P.C., committed against the prosecutrix, a minor girl of the age of about 7 years.

(3.) The case of the prosecution, briefly stated, is as under: The prosecutrix (PW-4) was residing on rental basis, along with her parents namely the mother (PW-3) and father, in the third room of the chawl, belonging to Shri Surendra Gawas (PW-11). The accused was staying along with Rana Ram Purohit (PW-1) and his wife, Mrs. Divya Purohit (PW-2), in room no. 5 of the same chawl. PW- 1 who runs the business of preparing and selling sweets, has a mithai bhatti adjacent to and behind his room. On 13/04/2007 at about 19.30 hours, the prosecutrix had gone behind the said mithai bhatti in order to collect the clothes which were put on the iron wire/rope for drying. At that time, the accused who was there, came near the prosecutrix, caught her hand, pulled her, forcibly laid her on the ground, pulled her underwear half way, also lowered his half pant and inserted his penis into her vagina. At that time, PW-3 reached there and she pulled the accused after which the accused ran away. The husband of PW-3 was not at home and PW-3 phoned him and informed about the incident and called him home. The husband of PW-3 came home at about 9.15 p.m. and phoned the police at Usgaon Tisk outpost. P W- 9, Shri Nilesh Bhamaikar of Ponda Police Station was at police outpost at Usgaon Tisk when the said telephone call was received by P.C. Masurkar from the father of the prosecutrix informing that one Rajasthani boy, who is his neighbour namely Dhannaram Bhill (Accused) had committed rape on his 7 years old daughter and ran away. A station diary entry about the said information was made vide S.D.E. No. 84 and the police team left for verification of the facts.