CHENNAI: A Mahila court here on Monday sentenced a 37-year-old man to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment for abducting and raping a minor girl. According to the prosecution, M Kannan, a resident of Rajapalayam in Virudhunagar, volunteered to help the girl Mallika (16) (name changed) with financial aid and college admission, after coming across an interview of her brother Gokul (name changed) to a Tamil magazine.
Gokul, an aspiring MBBS student who scored high marks in the higher secondary exam from Namakkal district, hailed from a poor family and could not afford higher education. The interview was published in the magazine and subsequently, the boy was provided financial aid by the State government to pursue higher education.
However, Kannan, with the information provided in the interview, contacted Gokul’s father Baskar, and informed him that he could arrange for financial aid and admission in a reputed college for his daughter. Believing him, Baskar and his wife, along with their daughter, came to Chennai on December 19, 2011. After sending Baskar away, Kannan took Mallika and her mother in a car. When they reached Choolaimedu, he took the girl separately in an auto on the pretext of accompanying her to take photocopies of her marksheets.
The prosecution submitted that Kannan then took the girl to Samayapuram and Thiruparangundram, where he raped her and later promised to marry her. On December 23, 2011, when the two were at the Mattuthavani bus stand in Madurai, the police intercepted them and arrested Kannan.