A 60-year-old day labourer, Muhammed alias Elsur Muhammed, has been sentenced to 88 years of rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl multiple times in the Kasaragod district of Kerala, India. Muhammed was found guilty of all four charges he faced, including rape and kidnapping.
According to the public prosecutor for sex crimes against children, Prakash Ammannaya, Muhammed used to take the girl to a nearby rubber estate by promising to get her mangoes and gooseberries, where he would sexually abuse her. The girl was assaulted at least three times, with the last one being on August 14, 2019.
The crime came to light when another girl, aged 11 years, told her mother that Muhammed was molesting her. The girl also told her mother that Muhammed was abusing the nine-year-old girl too. The two girls are neighbours and belong to poor families, according to the prosecutor.
Muhammed was charged with sections 7 and 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 in the first case. However, the then Adhur station house officer, Inspector K Premsadan, found that Muhammed had raped the nine-year-old girl. The medical evidence proved the sexual assault, said Ammannaya.
Premsadan arrested Muhammed and charged him with repeatedly raping a woman, raping a girl under 12 years, kidnapping, and sexual harassment under the POCSO Act.
Judge A Manoj of Kasaragod Additional Sessions Court (I) found Muhammed guilty of all four charges and sentenced him to 40 years of rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting the girl multiple times, and another 40 years for sexually assaulting a girl under 12 years, and five years for kidnapping and three years for sexual harassment under the POCSO Act.
“The sentences will run concurrently, and so he will have to serve 40 years of rigorous imprisonment,” said Ammannaya. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 7 lakh on him. If the fine is not paid, he will have to serve another seven years in prison, said the prosecutor.
The trial of the sexual abuse case of the 11-year-old girl has begun.
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