Kannur: A fast-track special court in Taliparamba sentenced a man to 113 years in prison for sexually assaulting his wife's minor brother multiple times from 2017 to 2018. Judge Rajesh R found the 34-year-old truck driver guilty of seven offences of sexual assault and fined him Rs 1.75 lakh.
Public prosecutor for sex crimes against children Adv Sherymol Jose said the man had similarly assaulted the victim's twin brother, too. "But the two brothers did not know the other twin was being abused," she said. The trial in the second case is in the last phase, Advocate Jose said. The crimes happened in Kannur's Sreekandapuram police limits.
In the first case, the boy was assaulted at least four times in the 2017-2018 academic year, when he was in Class 7. According to the prosecution, the man sodomised the boy and forced him into oral sex at his house and neighbouring fields. The man abused the second twin till 2020, said the prosecutor.
The crime came to light when the man attacked the boys with wooden planks in 2021. "The boys wanted to press charges against their brother-in-law but their sister asked them to forgive him as he was like a father figure. Their father was no more," said Jose.
The sister's words triggered the boys and they revealed their ordeal to her. "That's why the boys came to know that both were victims of their brother-in-law," said the public prosecutor.
Sreekandapuram Station House Officer - Inspector Ranjith K R arrested the man and registered two FIRs against him. Inspector Sureshan E P investigated the case and submitted the charge sheet. The man was charged with sodomy, oral sex and aggravated penetrative sexual assault.
The judge sentenced him to 10 years under Section 377 of the IPC; 20 years each under Sections 3 (a) and (d) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and 20 years each under Section 5 (l), (n), and (p) of the POCSO Act. He was also sentenced to three years under Section 77 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. He was fined Rs 25,000 for each of the seven offences, said Adv Jose. His sentences will run concurrently and so he will have to serve only 20 years in prison.
As an under-trial, he was given bail under the condition that he should not enter Kannur district. "He moved to Thiruvananthapuram and married another woman," she said. He and his father were arrested for another sex crime around three years before. "His father ended his life in prison," she said.
