By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 8: A division bench of the High Court of Meghalaya has overturned the sentence meted out to an accused by a Special Judge, POCSO Court, Nongpoh.
The Division bench of Justice HS Thangkhiew and Justice W Diengdoh in its 34-page judgment on Wednesday said that on an overall appreciation of the evidence and the materials on record as well as on consideration of the argument of the counsels for the rival parties, the Court finds that the prosecution has not been able to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
The judgment said that the benefit of doubt should accordingly go to the accused/appellant. “Consequently, this Court finds that the learned Special Judge, POCSO Court, Nongpoh has failed to appreciate the evidence on record and has come to a wrong finding to attribute the offences charged to the appellant and consequently to convict him under the sections of law mentioned in the impugned judgment,” the order said.
“Accordingly, we hereby reverse the findings in the impugned judgment and overturn the sentence meted out to the appellant by setting aside his conviction. In conclusion, we hereby set aside the conviction of the appellant and he is acquitted accordingly. He is directed to be released forthwith unless wanted in some other cases,” the judgment said.
On May 31, 2013 one person had lodged an FIR before the Umiam Police Station to the effect that his 15-year-old daughter was missing that he strongly suspected that she had been kidnapped by the accused.
Accordingly, Umiam Police registered a case under Sections 363/376 read with Section 4 of the POCSO Act, 2012 and investigation was launched.
The next day, the complainant along with his relatives appeared at Umiam Police Station with his daughter and the accused and narrated that he along with his son-in-law caught the couple at the VIP Airport Road, Guwahati, Assam while they were on the way to the railway station.
The police then arrested the accused and forwarded him to judicial custody after all the required formalities were completed.
In due course, the investigation was completed and the I/O forwarded the charge sheet to the Court as required under Section 173 CrPC with a report that during investigation a prima facie case under Sections 363/376(1) IPC read with Section 4 POCSO Act was found well established against the accused and prayer was made to direct him to stand trial further indicating that there are witnesses who may be summoned in this regard.
The Special Judge (POCSO) Court, Ri-Bhoi District, Nongpoh took up the matter and accordingly framed charges against the accused/appellant under the aforesaid sections of law.
Thereafter, the argument of the parties was heard by the Court and on consideration of the same including the statements of the witnesses and the materials on record, the Court found that the charges against the accused are well founded and accordingly, vide Judgment dated February 7, 2020 he was convicted and vide Order dated February 19, 2020, he was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment of ten years with fine of Rs one lakh and in default of the same, he shall undergo simple imprisonment of one year for the offence punishable under Section 376(1) IPC and for the offence under Section 363 IPC, he was further sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment of five years with fine of Rs 25,000.
Being highly aggrieved and dissatisfied with the said Judgment and Order of the learned Special Judge, the convict/appellant approached the High Court with this instant appeal inter alia, on the ground that the impugned judgment is bad in law and facts and that the same is perverse, based on mere surmises and conjectures and not supported by facts or materials or evidence against the appellant and as such, the same is liable to be set aside and quashed.