vicinity to his house. He found his dog in the said chawl, however, the child was nowhere to be seen. Thus, presumably the child victim must have gone missing within the small window of 10:30 A.M. and 10:45 A.M. It is undisputed that the child victim’s body was recovered from a pond, which is around one kilometer away from the purported place of the incident, i.e., room No. 2 of the watchmen chawl, on 2nd October, 2013. We are of the prima facie opinion that the case of the prosecution, particularly on the aspect of time, manner and place of the incident is doubtful. 37. It is admitted that the complainant had started the search operations around 10:45 A.M. and had also searched in and around the watchmen chawl. As is borne out from the evidence available on record, the area where the complainant resided is thickly populated and inhabited by a large number of 28 Criminal Appeal No(s). 1954-1955 of 2022