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The Karnataka High Court has reduced the sentence of a Muslim man from 20 years to 10 years jail term, for raping his minor step daughter, by holding that he could not have been convicted under amended penal provision which came into force, subsequent to the date of incident.

A single judge bench of Justice K Natarajan said the trial court at Bengaluru had found the accused Abdul Khadar alias Rafiq, guilty for the offence punishable under Section 376 of IPC, but while sentencing him, it considered the amended IPC Section 376(3) of IPC. 

"It is worth to mention that the amended IPC came into force by adding Section 376(3) is only from 21.04.2018 and prior to that the provisions of 376(3) of IPC was not all in the statute. The trial court committed an error in awarding the punishment for offence punishable under Section 376(3) of IPC when the said offence was not at all in the statute as on date prior to 13.10.2015."

The court also said it is worth to mention Article 20 of the Constitution which reads as, "No one can be convicted for an act that was not an offence at the time of its commission, and no one can be given punishment greater than what was provided in the law prevalent at the time of its commission".

The amended Section 376 (3) of the IPC prescribing 20 years imprisonment for repeated sexual assault on the victim between 16-20 years, came into force from April 21, 2018, while the crime against the accused was reported on October 13, 2015.

The 15-year-old girl, in her deposition, stated the accused, whom her mother had married after death of her father, used to sexually assault her whenever her mother visited Tumkuru for buying grocery from ration shop. Learned amicus curiae in the case also contended that the child had undergone tremendous trauma due to the sexual assault made by the step father who is an auto driver. "He also threatened her with knife and to commit murder of her and her mother. Therefore, the child escaped from the house and stayed in her aunt’s house. All the witnesses have categorically stated that when they proposed the marriage of the victim girl, the accused reacted not to send her out by marrying, as he wanted to sexually assault the victim," he informed the court.

"It is a settled position of law, that no woman use to make a such a false allegation against any person that too he has committed rape if he has not really committed rape," the bench said.

The court also said the victim girl is grown up girl of 15 years and the accused misused the absence of her mother in the house and sexually assaulted her by showing her knife.

"Therefore, considering the entire evidence on record, the prosecution is successful in proving that the accused sexually assaulted her which falls under Section 376 (2) of IPC and Section 6 of the POCSO Act," the bench said.

Case Title: Abdul Khadar @ Rafiq Vs. The State and Ors.
 

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