Kavaratti resident found guilty of sexual assault of minor boy

The special court in Lakshadweep on Tuesday found a Kavaratti resident guilty of sexual assault of an 11-year-old boy in 2022, under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act), 2012.

Ilyas T.P., 37, was awarded 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment, while he was directed to pay ₹1 lakh as fine to the victim as compensation. In addition, the District Legal Services Authority of Kavaratti was directed to consider awarding ₹2 lakh as compensation to the victim, considering the nature of the offence, the victim’s age, the psychological trauma, and the need for rehabilitation.

The accused was convicted under the POCSO Act and under Section 368 of IPC (wrongful confinement of a kidnapped person). The Kavaratti police had charged him with kidnapping the child from the lawful guardianship of his parents multiple times, taking him to a house that was under construction, and sexually assaulting him.

The case was recorded on the basis of a medico-legal intimation that the police received from a hospital in Kavaratti. The victim’s father had deposed that he was taken for psychiatric counselling at the hospital after he became weak in studies and inattentive in class.