HC reduces convicts jail term in 30-yr-old case

Cuttack: Orissa high court has reduced the jail term of a 75-year-old man convicted in a 1995 case of trespass and outrage of modesty, citing his old age and clean conduct over the past three decades.The single judge bench of Justice Sibo Sankar Mishra, hearing the case partly allowed the criminal appeal filed by G. Krutibasa Patra against the March 27, 1998 judgment of the special judge, Koraput in Jeypore. The criminal appeal was filed on April 20, 1998.While upholding the conviction recently, Justice Mishra, agreed to take a lenient view. “Considering the fact that the incident occurred three decades ago, and the appellant is now in his late seventies, has no other criminal involvement, and has lived a reformed and socially respectable life since then, I am inclined to take a lenient view,” the court observed.Noting that Patra had already spent 15 days in custody, Justice Mishra said: “While affirming the conviction, the substantive sentences imposed by the learned trial court are reduced to the period the appellant already undergone.” With this observation, the HC brought closure to a nearly 30-year-old case.According to trial court records the prosecution story was that Patra had “repeatedly entered the informant’s (complainant’s) residential quarters in Damanjodi during his absence, on various pretexts.”

The FIR alleged that he “misbehaved with the informant’s wife and used words that outraged her modesty.” He also allegedly “attempted to lure her with promises of gold ornaments and persuaded her to consume liquor.

” The incidents dated back to 1995.The trial court had convicted Patra under Sections 448, 354, and 509 of the IPC while acquitting him of the charge under Section 3(1)(xi) of the SC & ST (PoA) Act. He was sentenced to two months’ rigorous imprisonment each for trespass and assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage modesty, and one month’s simple imprisonment for insulting a woman’s modesty, with the sentences to run concurrently.