On Thursday, a fast track court in Kerala sentenced a madrasa instructor to 67 years in prison for unlawful detention and aggravated sexual assault on a teenage boy who was his pupil at the religious institution. However, because the sentences are to run consecutively, he would only serve 20 years.
Under the POCSO Act, Special Judge Satheesh Kumar V convicted and sentenced the teacher to 20 years in prison for each of the offences of aggravated penetrative sexual assault by a member of an educational institution’s staff against one of its students, sexual assault of a child under the age of 12, and sexual assault on a minor by a person in a position of trust or authority.
The man was also sentenced to five years in prison for aggravated sexual assault on a child under the age of 12 under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act, as well as one year in prison for illegal confinement under the IPC and cruelty to a child by someone in control of him under the Juvenile Justice Act.
The court also fined him Rs 65,000. Because the court stated that the sentences will run concurrently, he will only serve the maximum punishment of 20 years. The court convicted the instructor of an unnatural act under section 377 of the IPC, but did not impose a separate sentence ‘in light of the prohibition under section 26 of the General Clause Act’.
Section 26 of the General Clause Act states that ‘when an act or omission constitutes an offense under two or more enactments, the offender shall be entitled to be prosecuted and punished under each or any of those enactments, but shall not be liable to be punished twice for the same crime’. The court also cleared him of the charges of repeated penetrative sexual assault on a juvenile under the POCSO Act and criminal intimidation under the IPC. The court advised the District Legal Services Authority in Ernakulam to compensate the victim under the Kerala State Victim Compensation Scheme.
Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) A Sindhu claims that the crime was reported in January 2020 after the then-11-year-old victim told some of his schoolmates about the abuse he had been experiencing from his then-50-year-old madrasa instructor for some time. His classmates informed their teacher, who informed the principal, who notified the child welfare committee and the police, according to the SPP.
According to the child’s statement, the instructor of the madrasa, where he used to go for courses in the morning, had been sexually abusing him for some time by calling him to the institution in the evenings, bringing him into a room, and forcing him to perform oral sex on the accused. As per the child’s statement, the instructor used to feed him sweets and scare him by threatening to fail him in madrasa examinations to keep him from telling anybody.
The teacher also gave the youngster a mobile phone with pornographic films for him to watch on one occasion, according to the SPP, and when the boy’s father discovered the device, he became upset and damaged it without realising what was in it or what was going on. When the attack was ultimately reported to child services, the parents found out what was going on, according to the SPP. The prosecution further stated that the boy alleged in his testimony that the teacher sexually molested several other madrasa students. She claimed that no one else had filed a complaint.
Post Your Comments