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Synopsis

The Allahabad High Court recently reduced the life imprisonment sentence given to a man convicted of raping a five-year-old girl to fourteen years of rigorous imprisonment.

The division bench of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Mohd. Azhar Husain Idrisi passed the order in an appeal filed by the convict against the trial court's 2017 order of conviction and sentencing. 

The bench noted that the convict-appellant had already served close to 15 years in prison, exceeding the minimum punishment prescribed for the crime he committed.

Further, the bench was informed by the appellant's counsel about his family's financial difficulties, revealing that his mother, now the sole breadwinner, sells vegetables for a living. The counsel emphasized that the appellant, aged 18-19 at the time of the incident, used to work as an auto-rickshaw driver and he used to be the primary provider for the family before being arrested.

Given these circumstances and the appellant's first-time offender status, the court decided to reduce his life imprisonment sentence to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment.

The case was filed in 2011 at the Chhatta police station in the Agra district of Uttar Pradesh. According to the police report, the parents of the victim found their daughter lying in a pool of blood after midnight while they were all sleeping outside the house.

The victim later revealed that a person had taken her while she was sleeping, subjected her to sexual assault, and then assaulted her with a brick, intending to kill her. Believing she was dead, the attacker left her alone. Despite her injuries, the victim managed to return and lay next to her mother.

The matter was promptly reported and the FIR was filed under Sections 376 and 307 of the IPC. 

Although the victim was unable to name the assailant, she immediately identified him when presented with photographs. The accused used to live near the victim's house. 

Since the family of the victim belonged to scheduled caste, the chargesheet was filed under Sections 376 and 307 of the IPC, along with Section 3(2)(V) of the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

While the trial court found the allegations of sexual assault proven, it found no evidence to support the claim that the appellant attempted to kill the child. Consequently, the trial court acquitted him of the charge under Section 307 of the IPC and convicted him under Section 376, IPC read with Section 3(2) (V) of the SC/ST Act.

The high court noted that evidence on record clearly indicated the sexual assault on the minor. Court highlighted that though being only 5 years old, the victim disclosed in detail about the incident suffered by her and she specifically recognized the accused as her assailant.

Therefore, refuting the defense counsel's argument that the victim had been coached and the accused had been falsely implicated, the court stated, "The prompt lodging of FIR; reference of victim to the hospital at 02.30 in the night; her medical examination soon thereafter by the doctor clearly persuades the Court not to doubt the veracity of prosecution case".

However, court noted that there was no evidence on record to show that the offence of rape was committed by the appellant on account of the caste identity of the victim. Therefore, it dropped the charges under Section 3(2) (V) of the SC/ST Act against the appellant. 

Accordingly, court allowed the appeal in part and ordered that since the period of sentence undergone by the appellant with remission was nearly 15 years, the life punishment imposed could be substituted with the sentence already undergone by him under Section 376, IPC.

"The accused appellant is reported to be in jail, he shall be released forthwith, unless is wanted in any other case, subject to compliance of Section 437A Cr.P.C," court directed. 

Case Title: Gaurav Yadav @ Phadka v. State of U.P.