7-YR-OLD'S TESTIMONY SEALS FATE OF POCSO ACCUSED, HC UPHOLDS LIFE-TERM JAIL

LIFTING the interim stay on the release of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rank list for this year, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently dismissed a PIL petition alleging malpractices and lack of transparency in its evaluation.

- R SIVAKUMAR @Chennai

THE Madras High Court has refused to reverse a judgment of a special court, which had sentenced a man to life imprisonment for abducting a minor girl before sexually assaulting and murdering her and dumping the body in a farm well in Vellore district in 2014.

The man was convicted and sentenced to life by the special court in 2019.

The statement of the victim's brother (then seven-year-old) turned vital for pinning down the convict as the court considered it as "an important link" in the chain of circumstances.

The orders were passed by a division bench of Justices M S Ramesh and N Senthilkumar while dismissing the appeal filed by the convict, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Mahila Court in Vellore on May 14, 2019, for the offences of abduction, murder and screening of evidence under the IPC and penetrative sexual assault under the Pocso Act.