CUDDALORE: A Cuddalore special court handling cases registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012 has sentenced a mason to 20 years imprisonment for raping a 14-year-old girl in 2019.
Special court judge M Ezhilarasi also sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment for kidnapping the minor girl. Both terms will run concurrently.
The judge directed the government to provide a compensation of Rs 3 lakh to the survivor within 30 days.
According to the prosecution, S Selvakumar, 29, a mason from Boothamoor in Vridhachalam taluk, kidnapped the minor girl from Srimushnam and raped her in a secluded spot behind Chidambaram bus stand in September 2019. The girl’s mother lodged a complaint with all-woman police against him.
Police booked the mason under sections 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage) and 376 (punishment for rape) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 5 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault), 5 (l) (whoever commits penetrative sexual assault on the child more than once or repeatedly) and 6 (punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of Pocso Act and arrested him.