Bhopal: As per an NDTV report, a Madhya Pradesh court today reduced a rapist's life sentence to 20 years giving the logic that he was kind enough to leave the 4-year-old girl alive.
The court also went on to call the rape 'a demonic act' saying that the convict appears to have no respect for the dignity of a woman and has the propensity to commit sexual offense even with a girl child aged 4 years.'
The convict who has served 15 years jail term had appealed before the court to consider the term undergone by him enough and release him.
What did the court say:
The court said, "In such circumstances, this court does not find any error in appreciation of evidence by the trial 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 offences even with a girl child aged four 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 life imprisonment can be reduced to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment," it added.
"Accordingly, the criminal appeal is partly allowed and the appellant will be made to suffer the period of 20 years in accordance with the law," it added.
Statistics of rape in India
According to NCRB 2021 statistics, Rajasthan reported the highest number of rapes among Indian states, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Among metropolitan cities, the national capital of Delhi continued to have the highest incidence of rape at 1,226 cases in 2021, while Jaipur had the highest rape rate (34 per 100,000 population). Kolkata had the least number of registered rape cases among metropolitan cities, with least rape rate.
Using a small sample survey, Human Rights Watch projects more than 7,200 minors – 1.6 in 100,000 minors – are raped each year in India. Among these, victims who do report the assaults are alleged to suffer mistreatment and humiliation from the police.
Minor girls are trafficked into prostitution in India, thus rape of minors conflates into a lifetime of suffering. Of the countries studied by Maplecroft on sex trafficking and crime against minors, India was ranked 7th worst.
