A court in Madhya Pradesh has recently cut down the life term imprisonment of a man who was found guilty of raping a mentally disabled minor. The court, in Jabalpur, cut short his sentence to 20 years in prison, stating that he has a wife and four kids to take care of.

The case was heard by a division bench of Justice Vivek Agarwal and Justice Devnarayan Mishra and the verdict was passed. While pronouncing the verdict, the court observed, 

"Learned trial court has not given any reason for awarding life imprisonment for the remainder of life and looking to the fact that appellant is married person, he was going through his youth and at the time of the commission of the offense, his age was 33 years, he has 4 children and a family to support, some leniency be shown in the matter of sentence."

Background of the case

The survivor, who was then 14 or 15 years old, is mentally disabled to the extent of 60%. She alleged her neighbor for sexual abuse. Forensic report confirmed the presence of the accused’s DNA and sperm on the survivor’s vaginal sample, which supported the survivor’s claims.

The accused, who was 33 when he committed the crime, was convicted of offenses under Section 5(k) of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which deals with crimes against children with mental or physical disabilities. He was also convicted under Section 376(2)(L) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Initially, the trial court sentenced him to life imprisonment and fined him ₹20,000.

The man appealed for the trial court’s verdict, claiming he was innocent. He also argued that he deserved a lighter sentence since he had a family to take care of.

The high court pointed out that the trial court had not sufficiently justified the decision to award life imprisonment without parole in this case. Given the man's family background and his age when he committed the crime, the court reduced his sentence to 20 years in prison rather than life imprisonment.

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