Imprisonment for life reduced to 14 years for rape convict

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka has reduced the sentence of “imprisonment for life” for a 35-year-old convicted for rape to 14 years imprisonment.

Considering the age of the convict and in a similar case in which the Supreme Court had reduced the sentence of a convict, the High Court of Karnataka said, “In this case too, the age of the accused as on the date of incident was 29 years. His present age is 35 years. Except this case, he is not involved in any other case. Already he has spent imprisonment of 6½ years. Therefore we find that there is a case for modifying the sentence with regard to imprisonment.”

The division bench of Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar and Justice Venkatesh Naik T heard the appeal filed by Balakondaiah, a resident of Bengaluru, originally hailing from Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh.

The accused a school bus driver was charged of enticing a 9-year-old girl to his house and subjecting her to penetrative sexual abuse.

Balakondaiah was tried for the offences under Sections 354-A, 366 and 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The trial court found him guilty and sentenced him to undergo “Imprisonment till his death” for the offences under Section 376 (rape) of the IPC.

The trial court did not find it necessary to sentence him separately for the offences under Sections 354A and 366 of the IPC and the POCSO Act. He has been imprisoned since 2017.

In the appeal before the HC, it was argued that after the amendment the IPC, as on the date of the incident in 2017 the maximum sentence for rape was rigorous imprisonment for ten years.

It was also argued that he was 35 years old without any other criminal case and therefore he should be set free after he completes the term sentence.

The HC in its judgment said that it completely agreed with the trial court which found the accused guilty.

“We completely agree with the findings recorded by the trial court. After going through the entire evidence, there is no scope for this court to interfere with the findings of the trial court in relation to offence punishable under Section 376 of IPC read with Section 3 read with Section 4 of POCSO Act.”

The HC also noted that as on the date of the incident the amendment of clause (i) to sub-section (2) of Section 376 was still in force which prescribed a punishment of minimum of 10 years which could be extended till life.

“Looked in this view, it can be stated that the trial court applied the law correctly for sentencing the accused to life imprisonment for the remainder of his life,” the HC said.

However, the HC considered the case of State of Rajasthan Vs Gautam (2023) in which the trial court had sentenced a man accused of sexual assault on a 5-year-old to life imprisonment for the remainder of the natural life of the accused.

The HC had reduced the sentence to 12 years imprisonment and then the Supreme Court modified it and imposed a term imprisonment of 14 years.

Considering the similarities, the HC of Karnataka modified the sentence on the accused and ordered “the accused is directed to serve rigorous imprisonment for a period of 14 years.” (CrlA 843/2018)