Did MP High Court Say Rape Convict Mohammed Firoz Was Kind? No, Viral Claim Is False.

A news of Madhya Pradesh High Court decreasing the death sentence of a rape convict to life imprisonment is being criticised by social media users. Panchjanya, a right-wing media outlet, tweeted the claim that a Muslim man named Mohammed Firoz is the accused whose punishment has been reduced.

Claim:

Panchajanya tweeted the following claim in Hindi, "The Madhya Pradesh High Court commuted the death sentence of rape convict Mohammad Firoz to life imprisonment. The court said, "Mohammed Firoz was kind, left the girl alive."

Santosh Chauhan, a reporter at Sudarshan News and Ashish Vyas, a journalist at Sudarshan TV, spread the claim on social media.

Netizens circulated the same claim across Twitter and Facebook.

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian fact check team verified the viral claim and found it to be false. The accused belongs to the Hindu community.

We conducted a keyword search with the terms 'Mohammed Firoz'. We came across a report by The Indian Express published on April 21, 2022.

The report titled, 'Supreme Court commutes death penalty to 20-year jail in minor's rape-murder case' details how the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of a man named Mohammed Firoz. The accused had been convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering a four-year-old girl in Madhya Pradesh in April 2013.

His sentence was commuted to a 20-year imprisonment term.

As per the report, the bench of Justices U U Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi commuted his sentence citing Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde's famous lines "the only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future."

Legal news portal LiveLaw had also reported on the case with the headline, 'Every Sinner Has A Future": Supreme Court Commutes Death Sentence Imposed On Man For Rape & Murder Of 4-Year-Old Girl'.

The article published on 20 April 2022 notes that the bench comprising Justices UU Lalit, S. Ravindra Bhat and Bela M. Trivedi noted that the determinative factor for "repairing the crippled psyche of the offender" may not always be the maximum punishment prescribed

In an update to the case published by Deccan Herald titled, 'SC dismisses review plea against verdict where it said 'every sinner has a future' on July 26, 2022, the mother of the four-year-old victim had appealed to the Supreme Court seeking a review of the reduction of the death sentence. As per the Deccan Herald article, the SC declined to reconsider its April 19 judgment. The apex court noted, "the commutation of the sentence of death to that of life imprisonment was done by the court after bestowing attention to the relevant factors."

Following this, we conducted another keyword search with terms, 'Madhya Pradesh rape convict'. This led us to this article published by The Indian Express on October 23, 2022. The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has commuted the life imprisonment sentence for the accused to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment, as per the Indian Express article. The article quotes the reason as "considering the fact that he was kind enough to leave the prosecutrix alive"

As per the article, Ramsingh, who used to sell medicines and herbs, was convicted of raping a 4-year-old girl in a tent. As per the court order iof the incident dated May 31, 2007, Ramsingh lured the girl to the tent with the promise of one rupee and then sexually assaulted her.

Reportedly, in an order dated October 18, the bench of Justices Satyendra Kumar Singh and Subodh Abhyankar, noted that the accused should "be made to suffer the period of 20 years in accordance with the law."

We also came across a report by Bar and Bench published on October 22, 2022, titled, 'Madhya Pradesh High Court says rape convict kind enough to leave survivor alive; reduces life sentence to 20 years' jail'.

The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court reduced the life imprisonment term of a rape convict to 20 years rigorous imprisonment, as per the Bar and Bench report. The MP HC noted that the accused was "kind enough to leave the survivor alive without taking her life." A case was registered against the accused for rape under the Indian Penal Code Section 3(1)12 of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

We also came across the legal order of the court dated October 18, 2022. The order stated, "however, considering the fact that he was kind enough to leave the prosecutrix alive, this court is of the opinion that the life imprisonment can be reduced to 20 years rigorous imprisonment."

Conclusion:

We found that two different incidences have been conflated to present a misleading image. In the first incident, Mohammed Firoz had sexually assaulted and killed a four-year-old girl in Madhya Pradesh in April 2013. His sentence was commuted to a 20-year imprisonment term by the Supreme Court in April 2022, stating that 'every sinner has a future'.

In the second incident, Ramsingh was convicted of raping a 4-year-old girl in a tent. In an order dated October 18, Madhya Pradesh High Court noted that the appellant should "be made to suffer the period of 20 years in accordance with the law."

The court noted that the accused was "kind enough to leave the survivor alive without taking her life." Thus, we can ascertain that the statements from these two different cases were conflated in a misleading communal manner.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.

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