Waghbil Gaon, Banjari Chawl, Laxminagar, Thane(W) along with his mother and daughter, i.e., the deceased child victim. On 30th September, 2013, at about 10:00 A.M., the complainant’s mother had gone out of the house to fetch water. At about 10:30 A.M., the complainant left his house to attend to some work. The child victim was alone in the house when the complainant went out. She came out of the house to play with the family pet dog. The complainant returned home at about 10:45 A.M. and noticed that his daughter and the pet dog were nowhere to be seen. Initially, he assumed that his child might have gone out in the vicinity to play with the dog and, thus, he set out to look for her in areas near his house. However, he could neither locate the child victim nor the pet dog. When the complainant’s mother came back to the house, he inquired about the whereabouts of the child from her, but she too 3 Criminal Appeal No(s). 1954-1955 of 2022