CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has set aside a trial court order, convicting and sentencing a man to 20 years imprisonment in a case filed under the Pocso Act, by taking into account the statement of the alleged survivor girl that she had married the accused and the two have a child.
Justice G K Ilanthiraiyan passed the order recently on an appeal filed by the convict, who was awarded the prison sentence (20 years under Pocso and 10 years under IPC) along with a total fine of Rs 1 lakh after he was found guilty under the Pocso Act for aggravated penetrative sexual assault and Section 366 of IPC – which dealt with kidnap or abducting a woman to compel her for marriage or intercourse – by the Mahila Court in Permabalur on April 4, 2025.
The prosecution’s case was that the appellant abducted the minor girl on August 10, 2015, and stayed with her till August 20. The police registered a case based on the complaint of the girl’s father
The trial court found him guilty and handed the punishment despite the statement that they were married and have a child. Challenging the trial court order, the man filed an appeal in the high court.
During the hearing before the high court, the girl, who is now a major, appeared before the court along with the female child. She deposed that she married the convict and the two were leading a happy life with their child.
The judge directed the appellant to register his marriage and produce the registration certificate to the respondent police station within eight weeks from the date of release from the prison, failing which the judgment will stand automatically cancelled.