Kasaragod: A school teacher from Kerala's Kasaragod district has been sentenced to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting a nine-year-old student in 2018.
The district sessions court has also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on P Rajan Nair (58), a native of Kinanoor in Kasaragod. Failure to pay the fine will add two more years to his jail term. The court also asked the state government to pay Rs 10 lakh aid to the survivor's family. The districts POCSO court judge P S Sasikumar asked the government to pay this amount in one month's time.
This is the second case in the state in which a sentencing has been handed out after the amendment to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, was made in April 2018.
Rajan Nair, who was a teacher at a Government Lower Primary School in the district, is accused of sexually assaulting the student, who studied in fourth standard, on and before October 11, 2018 at the school. The incident came to light when the student refused to go to school later and revealed the abuse during a counselling session. A case was registered by the Rajapuram Police over the incident.
The first sentencing after the POCSO amendment also came from Kasaragod district. In last December, the sessions court had sentenced a 46-year-old man to life imprisonment till death for sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl in 2018.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the accused V S Raveendran, who hails from Shankarampadi in Kasaragod.
The incident happened on October 9, 2018, when the accused, who was a neighbour, took the girl to his house when she went there to play with friends. The matter came to light after the child's mother approached the police. It was further revealed that the accused had earlier also sexually assaulted the minor.
