A fast-track special court for POCSO cases at Taliparamba in Kerala’s  Kannur, has sentenced an elderly man to double life imprisonment for sexually abusing a mentally ill girl for four years, from the time the girl was nine to 12 years old. The victim’s parents worked under the convict as rubber tappers and agricultural labourers.

Special Judge Rajesh R found Aloysius alias Jose, 64, of Pulikurumba in Naduvil Grama Panchayat guilty of nine counts of sexual assault and criminal intimidation.

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The court on Saturday awarded Jose two life sentences for aggravated sexual assault on the girl below 12 years of age under Sections 3(a), 4, 5(m) and 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Assault (POCSO) Act. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 375,000.

Reading out the verdict, the judge observed that the man in his 60s, who should have protected the girl, deserves no mercy.

The crime came to light in November 2020 when the girl’s cousins overheard her narrating her ordeal to her paternal grandmother on the phone.

Her parents told the ordeal to her school teachers, who informed Childline. Following this, the Kudiyanmala police filed a case  against Jose. But he was not arrested  by the police.

Larer,  when the media reported the case, the police arrested him. The girl’s advocate said that the victim had physical and mild mental disabilities and was also a heart patient.

According to the prosecution, Jose first abused the girl in his home in 2017 while her mother was working on his farm. She was nine years old and in fourth grade at the time.

He then sexually abused her when she accompanied her mother to his home, according to the indictment.

Since sixth grade, he would come to her home and sexually abuse her when her parents went rubber tapping. The last incident was reported on November 11, 2020, when she was in seventh grade.