Prison term to AIDS patient modified with penalty

Justice M V Muralidharan before whom the appeal moved by the AIDS patient came up said “I am of the view that the punishment of imprisonment for a period of one month has to be modified due to the nature of the disease and sufferings of the petitioner/accused on humanitarian ground.”

“Therefore, both the criminal revisions are allowed, and the punishment of one-month rigorous imprisonment is modified, and the petitioner/accused is directed to pay a sum of Rs.5000 in each case.”

As per the case, for the period from June 12, 2001 to May 28, 2002, the accused as Secretary-in-charge of Paradarami Primary Agricultural Co-operative bank in Vellore district had fabricated documents in the name of 11 members and without disbursing any loans prepared forged documents as if loans were sanctioned and disbursed to the witnesses and dishonestly appropriated Rs.3.92 lakh. Similarly, another Rs.6.29 lakh was misappropriated from November 21, 2001 to November 9, 11, 2004.

However, the trial court on confirming his conviction under Sections 468, 471, 408 and 477 (a) of IPC in both the cases had sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a year. But based on the submission that the accused was affected with AIDS and is counting his days, the lower appellate court modified the sentence from a year to a month based on the reasoning that if the petitioner goes to jail it will create health hazards not only to the petitioner but also to other inmates of the jail.