Madhya Pradesh High Court Reduces Rape Convict's Sentence Considering He Had Left Minor Victim Alive

The bench comprising Justices Subodh Abhyankar and S.K. Singh did not find any fault in the conviction of the Appellant but found it fit to extend him the benefit of remission -

In such circumstances, this Court does not find any error in appreciation of evidence by the trail Court and considering the demonic act of the appellant who appears to have no respect for the dignity of a woman and has the propensity to commit sexual offence even with a girl child aged 4 years, this Court does not find it to be a fit case where the sentence can be reduced to the sentence already undergone by him, 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.

Facts of the case was that the Appellant was accused and later convicted under Section376(2)(F) IPC for committing rape upon a 4-year-old girl. Aggrieved, the Appellant preferred an appeal against his conviction.

The Appellant submitted before the Court that he was falsely implicated in the case. He further pointed out that the FSL report was not brought on record by the Prosecution. It was also argued that it was not a case wherein he deserved the punishment of life imprisonment. Thus, he prayed that his sentence be reduced to the time he had already spent in prison.

Per contra, the State argued that the case of the Appellant did not deserve any leniency and therefore, the appeal be dismissed.

Examining the submissions of parties and the trial court record, the Court opined that the Appellant was rightly convicted for the offence. Dealing with the objection regarding the FSL report not being brought on record, the Court held that it was another example of gross negligence on the part of the police. Despite the same, the Court noted that the evidence, when scrutinized in totality, proved the guilt of the Appellant beyond reasonable doubt-

It is true that although the articles and the vaginal smear of the prosecutrix were sent to forensic laboratory but the FSL report is not available on record which again shows the gross negligence on the part of the police in prosecuting such heinous offences. However, mere absence of the FSL report does not and cannot deter the Courts to appreciate the evidence available on record in its proper perspective and as has already been observed by this Court, that there is not only eyewitness account available in the case but is also duly corroborated by the medical evidence as has been proved by PW/7 Dr. Ranjana Patidar, the guilt of the appellant is proved beyond reasonable doubt.

With the aforesaid observations, the Court upheld the conviction of the Appellant. However, noting that the Appellant had left the victim alive, the Court allowed the remission of his sentence from life imprisonment to 20 years of imprisonment. Accordingly, the appeal was partly allowed.