Last Updated: October 23, 2022, 07:39 AM IST
The man had been convicted Section 376(2)(F) of the IPC (committing rape on a woman when she is under twelve years of age). (Image for representation/Reuters)
The court noted that the accused was “kind enough” to leave the four-year-old girl alive and hence reduced his sentence
The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court reduced the life sentence of a man convicted of raping a four-year-old to 20 years after noting that he had not killed the minor, LiveLaw reported on Saturday.
The bench, comprising Justices Subodh Abhyankar and S.K. Singh, said that they did not find any fault in the conviction and termed the act by the accused “demonic” but noted that he was “kind enough” to leave the minor alive, hence reducing his sentence from life to 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment.
The man had been convicted Section 376(2)(F) of the IPC (committing rape on a woman when she is under twelve years of age), and had pleaded that he was falsely implicated, as per the report.
He also alleged that he had not been provided a forensic lab report. The bench said that the police were negligent for not having produced a chemical report despite the child’s vaginal smear being sent to a forensic laboratory but noted that the “mere absence” of the report could not hold against the evidence provided and the accused had been “rightly convicted”.
However, considering the fact that he was kind enough to leave the prosecutrix alive, this court is of the opinion that the life imprisonment can be reduced to 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment, the bench said.
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