Exactly two days after convicting 15 accused with the connection to the Ayanavaram sexual assault case, the Special Court in Chennai, that was installed to deal with POSCO cases, has, on Monday, dictated the sentence for the convicts.

After they have been proven guilty, the Special Court has sentenced them for life imprisonment. The Bench that was headed by Justice Manjula had awarded life term imprisonment for four convicts (Ravikumar, Suresh, Palani, and Abhishek) and these four convicts should be imprisoned till their death and the Justice had debarred to acquit them on ethical grounds. One of the convicts Rajasekar was awarded life imprisonment while the other convict was given seven years of imprisonment and the rest of nine convicts have been delivered with five years of the prison sentence.

The sexual assault and harassment case has its roots in 2018 where in July 2018, the All Women Police Station in Chennai arrested 17 miscreants for reportedly harassing and sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl who was living in an apartment in Ayanavaram. She has been suffering from hearing impairment. Initially, the parents of the girl had taken her to the hospital after she said complained of stomach pain without having the awareness of what has happened to her. The private hospital had asked the parents to admit her to the government hospital in Kilpauk by suspecting the sexual assault after which the case came to the revelation.

They have lodged an official police complaint and the police department had stated that she was assaulted by the group of men who were working in the apartment where she lived. The reports say she had allegedly been harassed and molested by the men between January 15th and July 5th, 2018 and based on the complaint, the police had booked Ravikumar (56), who was working as a lift operator at that time and he was the one who instigated the crime and during six months, the group had threatened the child with knives to seduce her not to inform the family about the assault.

After detaining all the accused who are all aged from 23 to 65, the police had registered a case against the accused under the grounds of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and various sections of the Indian Penal Code including sections 354-B (Assault or use of criminal force to a woman), 366 (kidnapping), 376-AB, 376-DB, 506 (i) and 506 (ii) of the IPC.

Out of 17 offenders, one has died during the trail and rest faced the investigation. On Saturday, the Justice pronounced that 15 have been convicted after they were proven guilty in the case and the court has granted amnesty for one of the offenders.

Also read: Ayanavaram case: POCSO court convicts 15 accused! Here is the update...