Ranchi: Jharkhand high court has held that merely entering a woman’s house at night and lifting her clothes does not amount to rape or an attempt to commit rape.Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava, while deciding a convict’s criminal appeal on Aug 31, said an act could be treated as attempted rape only when it was sufficiently close to the commission of the offence under the IPC.In the judgment, released on Monday, the court modified the sentence awarded to the appellant. He had challenged a July 25, 2006, order of a sessions court in East Singhbhum district sentencing him to four years of rigorous imprisonment.The high court said the nearly eight months the appellant had already spent in custody would be sufficient to meet the ends of justice and reduced his sentence to the period already undergone.Local police had arrested the man after an FIR was lodged on Dec 27, 1999. The woman alleged that he had entered her house on the night of Dec 26 and tried to lift her clothes with the intention of raping her.After investigation, police filed a chargesheet against him for attempted rape. The trial court subsequently convicted him of the charge and sentenced him to four years in prison.The high court ruled that the acts attributed to the appellant did not constitute an attempt to rape. It, however, upheld his conviction for using criminal force against a woman with the intention of outraging her modesty. The court said the evidence supported the lesser offence, even though it fell short of establishing an attempt to commit rape. With the sentence reduced to the period already undergone, the appeal was partly allowed.
