The Pathanamthitta Principal POCSO Court on Monday sentenced a 31-year-old man to 48 years of rigorous imprisonment for sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl.
The judge found the accused, identified as Rijomon John, guilty of raping the girl, who belonged to the Scheduled Caste.
The accused, father of two children, had been committing the crime since 2020, when he abandoned his family and lured the girl into a relationship. The victim revealed about the incident when the accused eloped with another woman in her neighbourhood recently.
He was sentenced under Section 366 of IPC and under Sections 5 and 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Alongside the jail term, the court also imposed a fine of ₹1.80 lakh on the convict. On default of payment, he will have to undergo an additional jail term of 30 months.
