The Madhya Pradesh High Court reduced the rape sentence of a man from life imprisonment to 20 years after noting that he had not killed the minor, Live Law reported on Saturday.

A bench of Justices Subodh Abhyankar and SK Singh said that while the accused man’s crime was “demonic”, he was “kind enough” to leave the four-year-old girl alive, and so his sentences could be reduced.

The accused man argued before the court that he was falsely implicated in the case. He also said that a chemical analysis report was not presented by the prosecution. Thus, he said that his sentence should be reduced as he had already spent some time in prison.

The High Court said that the police were negligent for not having produced a chemical report despite the child’s vaginal smear being sent to a forensic laboratory, Live Law reported.

However, the mere absence of the report cannot deter the court from examining other evidence on record, the judges said. In this particular case, witness testimony and a medical examination made for enough proof to define the gravity of the crime, they added.