Court in Kerala sentences man to 14 years in prison for sexually abusing his underage daughter

A 48-year-old man has been sentenced to a total of 14 years in prison by a Kerala court for aggravated sexual assault of his 14-year-old daughter at their home near Peroorkada.

Judge R. Rekha of the Thiruvananthapuram Special Court sentenced the man to seven years’ imprisonment each for repeated aggravated sexual assault under Section 9(l) and aggravated sexual assault by a consanguineous relative under Section 9(n) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, taking the total sentence to 14 years.

The May 31 order was confirmed by Special Public Prosecutor RS Vijay Mohan, who said the sentences had to be served concurrently and the man would therefore serve a term of seven years in prison – the longest of the sentences imposed on him.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on the convict, the SPP said.

The court also directed the district court to pay adequate compensation to the victim.

The victim and her father hail from Tamil Nadu, the SPP said.

According to the prosecution, the child had stated that her father had been sexually abusing her since 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the prosecutor, the defendant touched her genitals while she was sleeping one night in February last year.

Since the victim’s brother and elder sister were in Tamil Nadu, no one was at home at the time of the incident.

The girl’s mother allegedly committed suicide due to the defendant’s harassment, the prosecutor said.

The family then moved to Thiruvananthapuram, he said.

In addition to the sexual assault, the child was also beaten and on one occasion her hand was broken.

The child had never spoken about the assaults because there was no one who could protect him if a report had been made.

As the sexual abuse increased, she told her friends at school, who in turn told their teachers, according to the SPP.

The teachers filed a complaint with the police and the accused was arrested last year.

The prosecutor said the court found that the man who sexually abused his own child did not deserve leniency.