COIMBATORE: A Mahila court in Coimbatore sealed the fate of a 23-year-old on Wednesday by awarding him life in prison for abducting and raping two minor girls in Pollachi six months back.
The youth, Guru alias Veera alias Veerasamy, hailing from Valparai, entered the premises of Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC) in Pollachi on the night of June 11 and abducted the girls, aged 10 and 11, at knife-point. He then took the girls to the rooftop of an adjoining building and raped them. Veerasamy was arrested by the Pollachi All Women Police two days later and booked under sections 450 (house trespass in order to commit offence), 366 (kidnapping) and 376 (rape) of the IPC.
The judge M P Subramanian found Veerasamy guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to serve 14 years rigorous imprisonment for two counts of criminal intimidation, ten years for house trespassing, and ten years for two counts on charges of kidnapping.
The judge also indicted him on two counts of rape, and sentenced Veerasamy to two life imprisonment terms for the offence. The sentences are to be run concurrently. The judge also imposed a cumulative fine of `4,000, failure to pay which would incur an added prison sentence. The judge noted that the TELC Church was also responsible for the rape and ordered it to pay `2.5 lakh each in compensation to the victims.