The special court for the trial of cases registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act in Coimbatore on Tuesday sentenced a man from Ganapathy to undergo life imprisonment for sexually assaulting and impregnating a minor girl.
The court also ordered the State Government to give ₹ 5 lakh as compensation to the girl and her child.
Special court judge J. Radhika awarded the punishment to M. Keerthiraj (29) who had impregnated a 15-year-old girl from the same area in 2015 by promising to marry her.
The girl was staying with her mother and sister near Ganapthy. The mother had allegedly forcibly discontinued her studies at VIII standard as she was suffering from asthma.
The accused got introduced to the girl through her friend and he proposed to marry her. The accused assaulted the girl sexually on multiple occasions when she was alone at house.
The girl became pregnant and the mother lodged a complaint with the police which led to the arrest of Keerthiraj.
Of the ₹ 5 lakh which the court ordered the government to pay as compensation, ₹ 3 lakh was for the girl and ₹ 2 lakh for the child, said Public prosecutor R. Sarojini.
The court also imposed a fine of ₹ 2,000 on Keerthiraj.
Seven booked for assault
The Thudiyalur police have registered a case against seven persons who assaulted employees of a Tasmac outlet at Vellakinar pirivu late on Sunday.
K. Kumar, I. Kannan, R. Ragupathy, R. Sakthivel, Vijay from Urumandampalayam and two unknown persons were booked by the police after they allegedly assaulted five employees of the Tasmac outlet.
The police said the accused demanded free liquor from the outlet which the employees refused to give. They assaulted the employees with wooden log. Four accused were arrested on Monday.