Married man sentenced to total of 44 yrs imprisonment under POCSO Act

A married man was onWednesday sentenced to a total of 44 years imprisonment by aMahila court here for sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girlin 2017 and impregnating her after holding out the promise ofmarriage.

Delivering the verdict,Judge Arunachalam sentenced AntonyVinodh to 44 years imprisonment under various sections of thePOCSO act and IPC and slapped a fine of Rs one lakh on him.

He was sentenced to 20 years under 5L of the POCSO Act,another 20 years under 5J, two years under Section 506 of theIPC and another two years under IPC Section 351, PublicProsecutor Malini Prabhakar told reporters.

All the sentences will run concurrently, the PP said.

The prosecution case was that 34-year-old Antony Vinodh,a catering degree holder and a married man, befriended the12th standard student in 2017 and impregnated her.

On knowing about this, he got her to undergo an abortiontwice.

The girl narrated what she had gone through to herparents, who lodged a complaint with police, following whichthe man was arrested in September 2017.