The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court of Thrissur on Thursday, May 11 has awarded a life sentence to a pastor after he was found guilty of raping a 13-year-old Dalit girl.
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Interestingly, a few months ago, the pastor had already been sentenced to 40 years' imprisonment by the same court for raping a 12-year-old girl during the same stretch of time. The two girls studied in the same school.
The latest judgement was delivered by session court judge Nickson M Joseph, as the court found the Pastor, Sanal K James guilty of sexually abusing a minor girl on several occasions at his official residence from 2013 to 2015. The 35-year-old pastor who belongs to the Salvation Army Church at Peechi had repeatedly raped the seventh standard student.
It was only when the 13-year-old informed the incident to the teacher who was also the counsellor at the school, that the police was made aware of the incident through the child welfare committee.
According to the Special prosecutor Pious Mathew, medical examinations confirmed that the two had been raped. The accused was staying with his wife and daughter when the crimes were committed.
James is currently an inmate central prison at Viyyur.
