Bombay High Court enhances sentence of man convicted for raping deaf and mute sister-in-law

The Bombay High Court recently enhanced the prison sentence of a man convicted for raping his deaf and mute sister-in-law, from five years to seven years [Madhukar Makaji Mudgul vs The State of Maharashtra]. .A bench of Justices AS Gadkari and Milind N Jadhav expressed its shock at the manner in which the convict had behaved with a helpless disabled woman."Appellant has behaved in the most horrific manner and shocked our conscience. The magnitude of his offence is such that he has misused his position of trust and committed an act as alleged and proved on a helpless handicapped victim who could not speak or hear," the Court said..The appellant-convict, Madhukar Mudgul, raped his sister-in-law when the family was away. He, thereafter, threatened to harm her husband, also his brother, who was blind. He was convicted by Additional Sessions Judge at Niphad in Nashik district for offences under Sections 376 (rape) and 503 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for five years and fine of ₹1,000. .He moved the High Court challenging his conviction and sentence contending that he was falsely implicated in the case. The State also filed an appeal seeking enhancement of his sentence. The High Court took suo motu cognizance of the issue as well on the ground the trial court had shown leniency to the convict citing his age and the fact that he had attended court hearings regularly..Advocate Ashish Satpute, on behalf of the convict, argued that the case was a false one and was filed to divide the family and to effect partition of family property. He claimed that on the day of the alleged incident, the woman had gone out with the family as well..On the other hand, Assistant Public Prosecutor HJ Dedhia told the court that both the appellant and the survivor were in the house on the day along with the survivor's husband, who was asleep in another room. He further stated that after the incident, the woman tried to inform her father-in-law who, instead of paying heed to her, dropped her off at her mother's house.Subsequently, a First Information Report (FIR) was registered by the mother of the survivor after she found out about the incident..The Court relied on the woman's statement — which was recorded with the help of an interpreter — as well as her mother's statement before the trial court to conclude that the incident did take place..The bench observed that no woman would take the risk of levelling such an allegation just to effect the partition of family property."It is to be understood that no woman would even otherwise level and take the risk of levelling such a wild charge of ravishing her. only on the pretext of partition of the property. Victim is deaf and dumb, whereas her husband is blind. For more than 5 years victim and her husband have been part of the joint family with the parent inlaws and the family of her brother-in-law. Unless and until such an incident had happened or occurred there was no reason for the victim to make such an allegation," it said..Further observing that rape was not merely a physical assault but also destroyed the whole personality of the survivor, the Court enhanced the appellant's sentence to seven years imprisonment from five years and also increased the fine amount from ₹1,000 to ₹25,000."...it is seen that rape is not merely a physical assault but it destructs the whole personality of the helpless woman. In the present case, the victim is helpless handicapped woman and thus, the present case requires to be dealt with utmost sensitivity," it stated.The appellant was granted four weeks time by the court in order to surrender..[Read Judgment]