Thiruvananthapuram: A Kerala court has sentenced a man accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a minor girl when he was teaching her 11 years ago to 18 years in prison.
The incident came to light only in 2024 when the victim was an MBBS student and saw someone who looked like the accused.
Special Public Prosecutor R S Vijay Mohan said Thiruvananthapuram Special Court Judge Anju Meera Birla sentenced the 57-year-old to various imprisonment under the IPC and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act for 18 years.
However, since the sentences must be served concurrently and the maximum sentence is five years, the convict will only remain in prison for 5 years, the prosecutor said.
The court also imposed a fine of $The Public Prosecution said that the accused was ordered to pay 35,000 pounds to the Legal Services Authority in the region to pay compensation to the child “in light of the mental suffering she suffered.”
The public prosecutor said that when the girl was studying in the fifth grade in 2013, she was collecting tuition fees from the accused who sexually assaulted her.
The Public Prosecution said that the sexual assaults occurred several times until January 2014, and the girl stopped going to him when she was in sixth grade.
The prosecution said the victim never revealed what happened due to the teacher’s threats and as a result suffered from a mental disorder.
It also resulted in her losing a year of school while she was in Plus 2, the prosecutor said.
The Public Prosecution said that even after completing the Plus 2 program, she continued to display excessive fear, isolation, and panic disorder, due to her past ordeal, and the family referred her to a psychiatrist.
Since it was coronavirus time, she took the treatment online and since her mother was with her, she did not reveal what happened to her.
After taking the medication prescribed by the psychiatrist, her illness improved, she got admission in the MBBS course and started staying in a hostel, the prosecutor said.
During this time, in the year 2024, she saw someone who looked like her school teacher and became mentally ill.
The public prosecutor said that she consulted a doctor when the past incident came to light.
The Public Prosecution said that the doctor informed the police and the accused was arrested.
This article was generated from an automated news feed without any modifications to the text.
