NEW DELHI: You could expect this only in present-day India under Modi, where a court commutes the sentence of a rapist on the ground that ‘he was kind enough to leave the rape victim alive’.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court recently reduced the life sentence of a rape
convict to 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment considering the fact that he was
kind enough to leave the victim alive without taking her life [Ramu v State
of MP]’.
A bench of Justices Subodh Abhyankar and Satyendra Kumar Singh while
allowing the appeal of Ramsingh said, “Rape convict was kind enough to leave
the victim alive, the Court was of the opinion that the life imprisonment
could be reduced to 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment.
The appeal against conviction was preferred by the appellant Ramsingh
against the judgement passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Indore which
had convicted the appellant for committing rape on a girl under twelve years
of age under the Indian Penal Code.
The appellant-convict in the case used to live in a tent near the hut of the
survivor.
It was the prosecution case that when the grandmother of the girl went to
answer the call of nature, the girl also went behind her.
It was alleged that the appellant called victim into his tent on the pretext
of giving her a rupee. Thereafter, when the grandmother heard the cries of
the girl, she tried to call for help. The father of girl came out and heard
his daughter’s cries from the tent of appellant.
When he entered the tent, he saw his daughter lying on the ground bleeding
and the appellant naked. The appellant ran away from the spot soon after he
saw the survivor’s father entering the tent.
The girl informed the father about whole incident and when she was taken to
the hospital for examination, the doctor also confirmed rape.
