Kerala court gives man three life sentences for sexual assault on minor daughter

PTI, May 1, 2024, 12:41 PM IST

A Kerala court has sentenced a man to three life terms for repeatedly sexually assaulting his six-year-old daughter in July last year.

Thiruvananthapuram Fast Track Special Court (FTSC) judge R Rekha sentenced the man to life imprisonment for each of the offences under sections 5(l) (penetrative sexual assault on a child repeatedly), 5(m) (penetrative sexual assault on a child below 12 years) and 5(n) (sexual assault of child by a relative through blood or adoption..) of the POCSO Act.

Confirming the sentence given to the man, special public prosecutor (SPP) R S Vijay Mohan said on Tuesday that the father was also additionally sentenced to varying sentences under various provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and the IPC for a total of 21 years.

Besides that, the court also imposed a fine of Rs 90,000 on the 40-year-old father, the SPP said.

However, as the punishments have to be undergone concurrently, the man will serve a life sentence, the prosecutor said.

The prosecutor said that in its order on sentence, the court observed that he is a stain on the trust associated with fatherhood.

The court also said that a father who is supposed to protect his daughter has committed a heinous crime, according to the SPP.

It also observed that such an act can never be justified as through such a crime, the childhood of the victim has been lost.

The incident occurred in July 2023 when the victim’s mother was working in the Gulf region and the girl was living in her father and maternal grandmother’s homes.

The SPP said that the child was sexually assaulted when she was staying with her father.

According to the girl, her father took her inside a room by promising to show her the mobile phone and then sexually assaulted the child, the SPP said.

As the girl felt pain in her private parts as a result of the assault, she told her grandmother who took her to a doctor, the prosecutor said.

The child told the doctor what happened, and on the doctor’s instructions the police were informed and a case was registered, the SPP said.

Even the victim’s 15-year-old sister testified in the court that the father used to behave inappropriately when he came home drunk, the prosecutor said.

The trial in the case started on March 29, 2024 and was completed within a month, the SPP said.