IDUKKI: A court in Kerala has sentenced a man to a cumulative 40-year imprisonment for raping and impregnating his then 15-year-old stepdaughter back in 2017.
Idukki Fast Track Court judge T G Varghese on Tuesday handed the 41-year-old man varying jail terms for 40 years under different provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
But as the varying jail terms have to be served concurrently, the convict will have to serve only 10 years imprisonment, Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Shijo Mon Joseph said.
The prosecutor said that the convict even forced the stepdaughter to undergo an abortion and mid-way during the trial, the victim and her mother turned hostile. However, the accused was convicted on the basis of scientific and circumstantial evidence, he said.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs one lakh on the convict and directed the district legal service authority to pay Rs 50,000 for the rehabilitation of the victim, the SPP said.
As the offence occurred in 2017 before the POCSO Act was amended, the convict was given only 10 years for the offences of penetrative and aggravated sexual assault on his stepdaughter, the prosecutor said.
After the Act was amended in 2019, these offences carry a minimum punishment of 20 years, he said.