Kottayam: The POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) court in Kottayam has sentenced a man to rigorous imprisonment till death for raping and impregnating his mentally challenged minor daughter during the 2018 floods.
The court has also asked the Veloor native to pay a fine of Rs 50,000. In addition, the child should be compensated from the Victim Compensation Fund, the court said. The man had tried to put the blame on a guest worker, as migrant workers are called in Kerala, to cover up his crime.
The incident took place at a house within the limits of the Veloor police station. The mother of the 15-year-old girl had died earlier and she was in the care of her father.
When the house got damaged during the floods in 2018, the child and her father moved into a friend’s apartment. Meanwhile, the girl became unwell and tests indicated she was pregnant. The man forced his daughter to say that a ‘guest worker’ who lived near the house had sexually assaulted her. Following this, the police registered a case against the guest worker.
Later, the girl was taken to the Nirbhaya centre in Ernakulam. During counselling at the centre, she said it was her father who had abused her. The girl later also told the police that her father's friend had also abused her in his apartment. The police have filed a separate case against her father’s friend.
Judge G Gopakumar of the District Additional Sessions Court-1, which is also the Kottayam Special POCSO Court, pronounced the verdict. Special Public Prosecutor MN Pushkaran appeared for the prosecution.
