CHENNAI: A dismissed police constable was sentenced to life imprisonment for the "remainder of his natural life" by a special court for Pocso Act cases, for the rape and abetment of suicide of a 16-year-old girl.
The accused, Magesh (27), was a grade-II constable and had served as a gunman to an SP. The victim, a first-year catering student, had befriended Magesh on social media during the COVID-19 lockdown. The constable developed a relationship with the minor girl and promised to marry her.
In July 2020, he took her to a guest house in East Coast Road and engaged in sexual intercourse without her consent, according to the prosecution. When the girl became pregnant, the accused coerced her into aborting the foetus, still maintaining that he would marry her.
However, after a few months, he started ignoring her phone calls and abandoned her. On November 19, 2020, the victim set herself ablaze at her residence and later succumbed to her burns at the Government Kilpauk Hospital.
Initially registered as an unnatural death, the case was transferred to the CB-CID following a Madras High Court order in March 2021 after the victim's mother alleged foul play.
After the end of the trial, a special court sentenced Magesh to rigorous life imprisonment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault and a second life term for abetment of suicide. Additionally, the court directed the Tamil Nadu government to pay Rs 5 lakh as compensation to the victim's mother for her mental trauma.