35-day term for paedophile

A 65-year-old paedophile was let off with 31 days imprisonment by the Supreme Court. The court asked why Sivaram, who was 45 when he committed the act, had been sent to jail.

The man was on trial for a decade before an MP court. In 2001, he was given a two-year prison term. He challenged this order before the high court, which sustained the conviction but reduced the prison term to 31 days, which he had already served. The government moved the SC asking that the order be quashed.

It expressed concern that Sivaram shouldn’t be sent to jail as he is old. The prosecutor said leniency could embolden other paedophiles, but the judges didn’t interfere with the HC judgment.