India, Oct. 29 -- The Bombay High Court recently reduced the life sentence of a woman convicted of killing her alleged rapist to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment, holding that she acted under grave provocation and lost self-control.

A division bench of justice Urmila Joshi Phalke and justice Nandesh S. Deshpande observed that the woman had no intention to kill the man and modified her conviction from murder to culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

According to the prosecution, the case dates back to 2004, when the 22-year-old woman fatally attacked the man who had allegedly raped her after promising marriage and was pressuring her to withdraw the pending rape case. He visited her Washim home on June 22, 2004, demanding that she with...