A Madras High Court has commuted the life sentence of a man and two others convicted of crimes including kidnapping and sexual assault. Recently, a division bench consisting of Justices PN Prakash and A A Nakkiran passed the order as a result of an appeal by the three persons.
While it confirmed the sentence of 10 and 2 years’ rigorous imprisonment for kidnapping and forcibly marrying a minor that was handed to the main accused, Vijayakumar, the court sentenced him to 14 years’ RI without remission benefits for aggravated penetrative sexual assault.
On other counts, the bench reduced the life term handed to his accomplices – Pastor Muniyandi and Joseph Raja – for assisting aggravated penetrative sexual assault to ten years’ RI and reaffirmed two years’ RI for each of them. It was ordered that the trial court take measures to secure and imprison the appellants, who had been released on appeal bail.
According to the judges, the consent of the minor has no relevance at all in the case, but it can, at most, be considered as a mitigating factor when deciding the question of sentence. Vijayakumar, a resident of the Kanyakumari district, became close to the victim during visits to his sister’s house near Gobichettipalayam in the Erode district.
The girl was staying with her grandmother. A couple of months later, he eloped with her after becoming acquainted with her. They later married after she spent the night at one of his friends’ houses. Police in Kadathur caught the trio following a complaint from the girl’s grandmother and arrested the trio. A Mahila Court in Erode sentenced the trio to life in prison in November 2017.
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