A fast-track special court in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday sentenced 40-year-old cricket coach Manu M for 35 years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹66,000 for raping a student at a coaching centre in Thiruvananthapuram.

Judge Anju Meera Birla delivered the verdict in the second of six similar cases registered against the accused. Earlier, he was sentenced to 16 years of rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting another minor girl at the coaching centre.

He was convicted under multiple provisions of the POCSO Act, including two counts carrying seven years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of ₹10,000 each under Section 10 read with Sections 9(l) and 9(p). He was also sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of ₹5,000 under two separate provisions of the Act, and 10 years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of ₹15,000 under Section 18 read with Section 3(a).

Under the Information Technology Act, the court awarded him three years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹15,000 under Section 66E. He was further sentenced to one year of rigorous imprisonment and fined ₹2,000 under Section 506(1) of the IPC and another year of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of ₹4,000 under Section 201 of the IPC.

The court, however, did not recommend compensation for the survivor under Section 357A of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The court ordered that the sentence in the present case would commence only after the completion of the sentence imposed in the earlier case, effectively pushing the start of the new term to after July 5, 2029. It also directed that all substantive sentences awarded in the present case would run concurrently.

According to the prosecution, the survivor had been attending a prominent cricket coaching centre in Thiruvananthapuram since 2018. The accused allegedly took her to the gym and various bathrooms under the pretext of training and raped her. He also took nude photos and videos of the victim to blackmail her and used threats from a separate assault case to coerce her further.

When the girl began resisting, the accused stopped providing her with proper coaching, forcing her to move to a different facility in 2019. The survivor later stated she remained silent at the time out of fear that the coach would ruin her cricketing future.

The investigation revealed that Manu had allegedly abused five other children at the academy, all of whom quietly left for other training centres out of fear. The abuse finally came to light during a girls' cricket tournament in Thiruvananthapuram in 2024, when one of the survivors panicked upon seeing the accused after several years.

Her subsequent complaint gave other girls the courage to come forward, leading to six registered cases against the coach. The trial has been completed in four of these cases, resulting in two convictions so far.