Four people convicted of raping a young girl in 2006 received sentences from the Madras High Court of three years of hard jail instead of the original 10 years.
The Madras High Court has noted that the High Court can sentence the accused in a gang rape case to imprisonment of either sort for a term of less than 10 years if there are sufficient and specific reasons to be cited in the ruling. Four people who were charged with raping a young child in 2006 received sentences from the HC of three years of solitary confinement instead of the original 10 years.
While partially allowing a criminal appeal by Palani, S. Jayakumar, S. Manibarathi @ Varadarajan, and P. Gopinath, who sought to overturn the conviction, Justice G. Jayachandran made the observation and lowered the judgment and sentence passed by a Mahila court here in March, 2013.
In the first week of December 2006, the absconding Saravanan lured a 16-year-old girl who wanted to be an actress to a home in Kolathur. This case involved the Anti-Vice Squad in Chintadripet.
She met Jayakumar (A 1) and Palani (A 1). (A2). They brought her cool drinks, which she drank and took to being semiconscious.
She was attacked sexually by all three. It happened again in later incidents when Manibharathi and Gopinath, the other two, were involved in the investigation and were added as suspects.
The four were detained by the Anti-Vice squad when the family of the victim girl filed a tardy complaint, and the trial court judged them guilty of an offence under Section 376 of the IPC, convicted and sentenced them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 10 years with a fine of Rs 15,000 each in March 2013. Hence, the present appeal.
The judge partially upheld the appeal, stating that it was proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the appellants 1 and 2 participated in the gang rape of the victim girl together with the missing accused Saravanan. As a result, the accused are subject to punishment under Section 376(2)(g) of the IPC, which carries a minimum 10-year term.
The court can, however, issue a sentence of imprisonment of any sort for a term of less than 10 years if there are sufficient and unique circumstances, which must be indicated in the ruling, the judge noted.
Regarding Manibharathi, the judge stated that the sexual assault on the victim girl was carried out singly at his residence and did not constitute a gang rape to be punished under Section 376(2)(g) of I.P.C. Likewise, Gopinath (A4), who was alleged to have committed rape along with Ramu (A6 in the FIR) at a lodge near Puzhal. The said Ramu is not an accused in this case and the case against Ramu has been split up, the judge noted.
"Through the testimony of the witnesses, the prosecution has established that these appellants committed the crime with the assistance of the wanted suspect Saravanan, who in a sense served as a pimp and took advantage of the victim girl for his own financial gain. These appellants had succumbed to temptation and had indulged in carnal pleasure with the young girl.
"Since the accused under Sec. 313 of the CrPC procedures hasn't claimed ignorance about the victim's age and has merely refuted incriminating evidence as untrue, it is inferred that they knew about the presumption. Given the aforementioned information and the preceding justifications, this court, acting within its authority under proviso to Section 376 of the IPC, modifies the original sentence of 10 years R.I. to three years R.I., with a fine of Rs.15,000/-, in default, six months simple imprisonment," the judge said.
