In Brief
A 40-year-old man was convicted of raping a 7-year-old girl whom he took to a temple in Madhya Pradesh, disrobed, and sexually assaulted. The trial court imposed capital punishment; the High Court commuted it to life imprisonment. The Supreme Court held that such conduct is 'barbaric' even without physical brutality, and modified the sentence to a fixed term of 30 years rigorous imprisonment. The Court stressed that 'barbaric' and 'brutal' have distinct meanings and that the perpetrator's act of committing rape in a sacred place on a young child warranted severe punishment. A fine of ₹1 lakh was also imposed for victim rehabilitation. The petition was partly allowed.
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