TIRUPUR: The district mahila court on Thursday sentenced a 25-year-old man to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a 15-year-old girl and impregnating her, and two others to five years of rigorous imprisonment for molesting another minor girl.
In the first case, the court convicted K Karthik, a construction worker from Kongu Main Road in the city, for raping the 15-year-old school girl after befriending her.
According to a court source, the Tirupur North police arrested Karthik on February 6, 2021, after the girl’s parents lodged a complaint against him when they knew their daughter was pregnant.
Karthik, the source said, was booked under Sections 5(l) (whoever commits penetrative sexual assault on the child more than once or repeatedly), 5(j)(ii) (in the case of female child, makes the child pregnant as a consequences of sexual assault) read with 6 (punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, and remanded in judicial custody.
The case trial was held before the district mahila court and judge V P Sugandhi sentenced Karthik to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment under section 5(l) and another 20 years of rigorous imprisonment under sections 5(j)(ii) and 6 of the Pocso Act on Thursday. The court said both the sentences would run concurrently.
The judge also imposed a fine of 20,000 on Karthik and ordered a compensation of 4 lakh to the rape survivor under the victim compensation fund.
In the second case, the court convicted two men aged 28 years and 30 years for molesting a 15-year-old girl on October 14, 2021 and sentenced them to five years of rigorous imprisonment under Sections 7 (sexual assault) and 8 (punishment for sexual assault) of the Pocso Act. The court also ordered a compensation of 1 lakh for the victim.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
