In Sadir Quaraishi @ Md Sadir vs. The State of Bihar & Anr. (2026), Patna High Court's Division Bench of Justices Rajeev Ranjan Prasad and Soni Shrivastava delivered a 40-page long judgement dated June 19, 2026, wherein, it concluded:"53. In ultimate analysis, we are of the opinion that the learned trial court has erred in appreciation of the evidences available on the record. The conviction of the appellant cannot be sustained. We, therefore, set aside the impugned judgment and order of the learned trial court. The appellant shall be released forthwith, if not wanted in any other case. 54. This appeal is allowed." The judgement was authored by Justice Prasad.
The appeal was preferred for setting aside the judgment of conviction dated July 1, 2023 and order of sentence dated 05.07.2023 passed by Exclusive Special Judge (POCSO Act), Darbhanga in POCSO G.R. Case of 2019 which arose out of Jalley P.S. Case of 2019. By the impugned judgment, the appellant wasc onvicted for the offences punishable under Section 376 AB of the Indian Penal Code and Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. By the impugned order, he was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for twenty years with a fine of Rs. 30,000/- under Section 376 AB of the IPC and under Section 6 of the POCSO Act, and in default of payment of fine, he shall further undergo simple imprisonment for six months.
The prosecution case was based on the fardbeyan of the informant (maternal uncle of the victim). In his fardbeyan, the informant had alleged that two years ago, his sister was murdered by her in-laws and his brother-in-law was sent to jail. They had four children whom the informant brought to his house and some
of the children were with his relatives. One amongst the four children ‘X’ (victim) resided with the informant and studied there. The informant took care of the house. The informant had stated that there was a marriage in his sasural so he had gone there. It was alleged that on April 6, 2019, there was a marriage in the neighbourhood of the informant in which his niece was playing with other children. Sadir Qureshi resident of the same village took informant’s niece to his place by luring her and raped her. The niece came home crying and bleeding. Informant’s mother, who was herself a heart patient, became unconscious and could not tell anyone about the incident. When the informant came home, he gathered information about the incident, after which he went to police station to lodge complain. Informant had brought clothes of the victim along with the application. On the basis of the fardbeyan of the informant, FIR was registered. After investigation, police submitted chargesheet dated May 31, 2019 against the appellant for the offences punishable under Sections 376 IPC and Section 4/6 of the POCSO Act. 6. The trial court vide order June 19, 2019 took cognizance of the offences against appellant. Charges were read over and explained to the appellant in Hindi which he denied and claimed to be tried. Accordingly, charges were framed vide order dated November 15, 2019 for the offences. In course of trial, the prosecution examined eight witnesses and got exhibited certain documents.
Justice Prasad referred to the Supreme Court's decision in Pradeep vs. State of Haryana reported in AIR 2023 SC 3245, wherein, the Supreme Court has held that the conviction only on the testimony of a child witness who does not inspire confidence is not safe. The relevant paragraph of the judgment reads: “8. It is a well-settled principle that corroboration of the testimony of a child witness is not a rule but a measure of
caution and prudence. A child witness of tender age is easily susceptible to tutoring. However, that by itself is no ground to reject the evidence of a child witness. The Court must make careful scrutiny of the evidence of a child witness. The Court must apply its mind to the question whether there is a possibility of the child witness being tutored. Therefore, scrutiny of the evidence of a child witness is required to be made by the Court with care and caution.”
The judgement recorded: "No one has appeared on behalf of the informant despite service of notice."
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