Kerala court sentences Madrasa teacher to 20 years in jail for sexual assault of minor student

Kerala court has sentenced a Madrasa teacher to 20 years in jail for sexually assaulting a minor student.

Kochi: A madrasa teacher was sentenced to a cumulative jail term of 67 years by a fast track court in Kerala on Thursday for the illegal confinement and aggravated sexual assault of a minor boy, who was his student in the religious institution. The accused Aliyar (52 years old), is a resident of Nellikuzhi in Ernakulam district.

However, he would be serving only 20 years as the sentences are to run concurrently. The incident related to the case took place on 19th January, 2020. Special Judge Satheesh Kumar V convicted and sentenced the teacher to 20 years imprisonment for each of the offences of aggravated penetrative sexual assault by a staff of an educational institution against one of its students, sexual assault of a child below 12 years of age and sexual assault on a minor by a person in position of trust or authority, under the POCSO Act.

The fast track court also sentenced the man to five years for the offence of aggravated sexual assault on a child below 12 years under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and one year each for offences of illegal confinement under the IPC and cruelty to a child by someone in control over him under the Juvenile Justice Act. The court also imposed on him a fine of Rs 65,000. Since the court said that the sentences shall run concurrently, he will be serving only the maximum jail term awarded to him of 20 years. The court had convicted the teacher for unnatural offence under section 377 of the IPC, but did not award a separate punishment for the same "in view of the bar under section 26 of the General Clause Act".

Section 26 of the General Clause Act provides that -- "Where an act or omission constitutes an offence under two or more enactments, then the offender shall be liable to be prosecuted and punished under either or any of those enactments but shall not be liable to be punished twice for the same offence". The court also acquitted him of the offences of repeated penetrative sexual assault on a minor under the POCSO Act and criminal intimidation under the IPC. The court recommended to the District Legal Services Authority in Ernakulam to provide compensation to the victim under the Kerala State Victim Compensation Scheme.

According to Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) A. Sindhu, the crime was reported in January 2020 after the then 11 year old child told some of his friends in school about the ordeal he had been suffering at the hands of his then 50 year old madrasa teacher for some time. His friends told their class teacher who in turn told the school principal and the matter was reported to the child welfare committee as well as the police, the SPP said. (With agency inputs)