Blind teacher gets 20-year RI for raping minor student

Coimbatore: The special court for the trial of cases registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act in the city on Saturday sentenced a blind teacher to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a minor girl, who was one of his students, on several occasions from November 2019 to March 2020.
A court source identified the convict as R Udhayakumar, 41, who was a teacher with a special school for the blind, deaf and dumb students near Thondamuthur.
"On November 18, 2019, Udhayakumar raped an 11-year-old girl student on the school premises and threatened to finish her off if she revealed the incident to anyone. He then raped the minor girl on several occasions. Finally, the girl confided in her mother, who lodged a complaint with the Thondamuthur police on March 7, 2020," the source said.
Police registered a case against Udhayakumar under sections 5(m)(k)(f), 9(m)(k)(f) read with 10 of the Posco Act and Section 506 (ii) of the Indian Penal Code, and arrested him. Udhayakumar was subsequently lodged in the Coimbatore Central Prison under judicial custody. Later, he came out on conditional bail.
The case trial was held before the special court and judge G Kulasekaran pronounced the verdict on Saturday. Besides sentencing him to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment, the judge also imposed a fine of Rs20,000 on Udhayakumar. The court also directed the state govt to provide Rs 5 lakh to the rape survivor from the victim compensation fund.