Patna High Court reduces rape conviction to indecent assault for Mohammad Ainul Haq

On October 8, Justice Sandeep Kumar of the Patna High Court heard an appeal by Mohammad Ainul Haq and altered his earlier conviction for rape. The original case, tried in Begusarai in 2013, had resulted in a four-year prison term and a fine after the court accepted the woman's testimony that Haq entered her hut at night, covered her mouth and mounted her. During the high-court hearing, all witnesses except the complainant turned hostile and no medical or physical evidence was presented.

Relying on Supreme Court precedents, the bench concluded that, even if the testimony were accepted, the facts only established criminal trespass and assault, not rape. Consequently, the sentence was changed to a charge of assault on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty, with a Rs 25,000 compensation ordered to be paid within three weeks.