KOCHI: A fast track special court here on Tuesday sentenced a man to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping his then five-year-old daughter in 2018 and also imposed a fine of Rs 11.70 lakh on him.
Special Judge Satheesh Kumar V handed down 20 years jail term and slapped a fine of Rs 10 lakh on the man under Section 376AB of the Indian Penal Code which lays down the punishment for raping a minor who is below 12 years of age.
Under the section the minimum sentence is 20 years and the maximum is imprisonment for the remainder of the convict's life or death.
Besides that the court also sentenced the convict to 10 years imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 under Section 376 (2) (f) which also lays down the punishment for rape of a minor under 12 years of age.
According to Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) A Sindhu, the man was a drunkard and used to regularly beat up his daughter and her younger brother when their mother was not around and this was brought to the attention of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) by his neighbours.
Subsequently, CWC came with police and the man was arrested and the children were taken into the committee's custody.
During their counselling, the minor girl revealed to the CWC and the police that the father had on one occasion repeatedly raped her, the SPP said.
The court also sentenced the man to 5 years imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 each for the offences under sections 9(m) and 9(n) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act).
Section 9(m) of the Act deals with aggravated sexual assault of minor below 12 years of age and Section 9(n) deals with sexual assault by a parent or relative.
The man was also sentenced to one year jail term each for the offence under section 323 of IPC (voluntarily causing hurt) against each child.
A sentence of one year each and a fine of Rs 50,000 each was also imposed on the man for the offence of cruelty to a child under Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act against each child.
The court said all the sentences shall run concurrently and the period of detention already undergone by him would be set off against the period of imprisonment handed to him.