CUDDALORE: Cuddalore Special Court for trial of cases under the Pocso Act on Tuesday sentenced a 30-year-old man from Parathur to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl in 2018.
Justice S T Lakshmi Ramesh imposed a penalty of Rs 1.1 lakh on the convict and ordered the state government to provide Rs 5 lakh compensation to the victim’s family.
According to police, the victim, from a village near Chidambaram, went missing on April 1, 2018, and her body was recovered from a thicket near Parathur the next day. Following autopsy results, the police altered the missing persons case into a rape and murder case.
During the investigation, they arrested the man, S Manikandan (30), who later confessed to the crime and was tried at the special court in Cuddalore.
The incident sparked tensions among the villagers, as the girl belonged to a Schedule Caste community and her relatives accused certain caste Hindu individuals of the crime.
According to a police report, nearly 400 police personnel were deployed to send the body for autopsy, following villagers' resistance. Later, during the investigation, the police confirmed that the convict belonged to the same community as the victim.