Man gets 10 yr jail term for kidnapping, molesting teen

The Vellore mahila court convicted a 34-year-old construction worker for kidnapping and sexually molesting a 17-year-old girl and sentenced him to a total of 10 year-jail term. The court also ordered the Vellore Collector to pay a compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the victim on Tuesday.

Saravana (34) a construction worker and a resident of Narasingapuram in Alangyam town panchayat near Vaniyambadi, used to frequent his friend’s house where he saw the latter’s 17-year-old school going daughter.

On October 16, 2017, Saravana went to her school and took the girl along with him promising to marry her. Later, Saravana took her to Bengaluru where he spent four days and dropped her off at Tirupattur bus stand before returning to Vellore.

After the girl narrated the incident, family members lodged a complaint with the Alangayam police, who registered a case and arrested Saravanan. When the case came up for hearing before the Vellore Mahila court on Tuesday, magistrate Selvam convicted and sentenced the culprit with two punishments. The first one was 7 years of Rigorous Imprisonment (RI) and a fine of Rs,1000 for kidnapping the girl and sexually molesting her and second one with one year of RI and a fine of Rs 5000 and 10 years of RI under the POCSO Act for illegally detaining the girl for four days. He ordered that the 18-year sentence should be served concurrently by the convict.

As the compensation in the verdict would not be enough for the victim, he ordered the Collector to provide her a compensation of Rs 4 lakh. Saravanan was later lodged in the Vellore central prison.