A Kerala court has sentenced to a cumulative 18 years' imprisonment a man accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a minor girl when he used to tutor her 11 years ago.
The incident came to light only in 2024 when the victim was an MBBS student and saw someone resembling the accused.
Thiruvananthapuram Fast Track Special Court judge Anju Meera Birla sentenced the 57-year-old man to various jail terms under the IPC and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for a total of 18 years, special public prosecutor (SPP) R S Vijay Mohan said.
However, as the sentences have to be served concurrently and the highest of the punishments is five years, the convict will be in jail only for 5 years, the prosecutor said.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 35,000 on the accused and directed the District Legal Services Authority to pay compensation to the child "in light of the mental agony suffered" by her, the SPP said.
The prosecutor said that when the girl was studying in class 5 in 2013, she used to take tuition from the accused, who sexually assaulted her.
The sexual assaults occurred several times till January 2014, and the girl stopped going to him when she was in class 6, the SPP said.
But the victim never revealed what happened due to the tuition teacher's threats and, as a result, suffered from mental distress, the SPP said.
It also led to the loss of a year of studies when she was in Plus 2, the prosecutor said.
Even after completing Plus 2, she continued to show excessive fear, isolation, and panic disorder because of her past ordeal, and the family showed her to a psychologist, the SPP said.
As it was COVID-19 time, she got the treatment online, and since her mother was with her, she did not disclose what had happened to her.
After taking the medication prescribed by the psychologist, her illness improved, she got admission to an MBBS course, and she started staying in a hostel, the prosecutor said.
During this time, in 2024, she saw a person resembling her tuition teacher and became mentally disturbed.
She consulted a doctor, and that is when the past incident came to light, the prosecutor said.
The doctor informed the police, and the accused was arrested, the SPP said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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