[Criminal Appeal No. 231 of 2015 @ SLP (CRL) No. 5273 of 2012]. In this appeal, by special leave, the State of M.P. calls in question the legal acceptability of the judgment and order passed by the learned Single Judge of the High Court of M.P. in Criminal Appeal No. 808 of 2009 whereby he has set aside the conviction under Section 376(2)(f) read with Section 511 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the sentence imposed on that score, that is, rigorous imprisonment of five years by the learned Sessions Judge, Guna in ST No. 134/2009 and convicted the respondent-accused herein under Section 354 of the IPC and restricted the sentence to the period already undergone which is slightly more than one year. The factual narration for disposal of the present appeal lies in a narrow compass. The respondent as accused was sent up for trial for the offence punishable under Section 376(2)(f) IPC before the learned Sessions Judge. The case of the prosecution before the Court below was that on 27.12.2008, the victim, aged about 7 years, PW1, was proceeding towards Haar from her home and on the way the accused, Madan Lal, met her and came to know that she was going in search of her mother who had gone to graze the goats.
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