The division bench of Justice Subodh Abhyankar and Justice Satyendra Kumar Singh stated, “It is apparent that the aforesaid mistake is obviously inadvertent in the context as this court has already held the act of appellant as demonic. In such circumstances exercising its power under section 362 of CrPC the aforesaid para is modified and replaced.”
The court modified the paragraph to “…however considering the fact that he didn’t cause any physical injury to the victim…” from “…however considering the fact that he was kind enough to leave the prosecutrix (victim) alive…”.
The modification is only to the extent of the remark in the paragraph. The court in an order dated October 18 cut rape term of a convict to 20 years from life term imprisonment while partly allowing his appeal with a reference of ‘kind’ to appellant. The remark caused a furore.
The appellant was sentenced to life by a trial court for raping the child in Indore on May 31, 2007. The convict had appealed for a reduction of sentence to time already served in prison, but the court disallowed it, considering the “demonic act of the appellant”. He has been in prison for 15 years.
A native of MP’s Jhabua district, the convict had come to Indore to work as a labourer when he raped the child in a hut. The court order notes that the girl was found “smeared in blood” and her father saw the convict on the scene, naked. He was caught by the child’s grandmother when he was trying to flee and taken to the police.
The court further added, “The para 12 of judgement dated October 18 shall stand replaced with modified paragraph. This order be read conjointly with the order dated October 18.” TNN