The Special Court for the trial of cases registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Coimbatore, on Monday sentenced a young man to undergo 25 years of imprisonment for sexually assaulting a minor girl in 2020.
Special court judge G. Kulasekaran awarded the punishment to a 25-year-old man, who hails from a village near Madukkarai in Coimbatore district.
According to the police, the man befriended a 17-year-old girl from the city, when he worked as collection agent with a private finance firm. On August 19, 2020, the accused took the girl to his relative’s house at Madukkarai, promising to marry her, and sexually assaulted her.
The girl’s parents initially lodged a complaint with the Race Course police station after finding their daughter missing. The All Women Police, Coimbatore Central, later took over the investigation and arrested the man for offences under Sections 363 (punishment for kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code, Section 5(l) (penetrative sexual assault on the child more than once or repeatedly) read with Section 6 (punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The court, on completion of the trial, awarded five years of imprisonment and a fine of ₹5,000 for kidnaping the girl and 20 years of imprisonment and a fine of ₹20,000 for offences under the POCSO Act.
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