whether the appellant had committed an offence. Noticeably, the implication as to the involvement of the appellant was made shortly thereafter, that is on 31st December 2010. By then the entire village was in a state of alarm and wary that a terrible crime had been committed by someone from the village. Yallappagouda Kagadal (PW-7), Bhimappa Talawar (PW-8), Gadigeppa Talawar (PW-9), and Hanamappa Talawar (PW-10) had come forward and stated that they saw the appellant carry a child towards Bennihalla. The appellant, a driver by profession, had gone missing according to Ajit Patil’s (PW-6) testimony. Therefore, mere non-inclination to straight-away accuse the appellant who was apparently close to Venkavva Patil (PW-5) and Ajit Patil (PW6) and had come to their house to watch television, should not be a ground to thrust aside Hanamappa’s (PW-4) version as he had not named the appellant, or depositions of Venkavva Patil (PW-5) and Ajit Patil (PW-6) that R had left with the appellant. One could accept that there could be some exaggeration in the statements of Venkavva Patil (PW-5) and Ajit Patil (PW-6) to the extent that they had heard the appellant conversing with R and that he had taken her away on the pretext of giving her a biscuit, but this would not in any manner affect the factum that the appellant and the victim R were present in the house of Venkavva Patil (PW-5) and Ajit Patil (PW-6) at 6:30 p.m. on 28th December 2010 where they had Criminal Appeal Nos. 1473-1474 of 2017 Page 10 of 30