Mangaluru: A 26-year-old labourer has been given seven year rigourous imprisonment by the VI Additional District and Sessions Court for sexually assaulting a 19-year-old student in Moodabidri in 2013.
According to the chargesheet, the labourer named Mahesh had befriended the victim after introducing himself as Praveen, a site engineer.
After taking her into confidence, Mahesh started borrowing her gold chain, ear studs and rings citing financial crisis and the girl helped him by lending ornaments.
On June 16, 2013 when the girl asked for her jewelry, Mahesh took her to an abandoned office and sexually assaulted her.
He then revealed his real name and threatened her and her family of filing a case under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act as he was from the Scheduled Castes, the chargesheet said.
The girl told her parents and filed a complaint. A.K. Thimmaiah, the then inspector of Moodbidri police station, arrested Mahesh and then filed chargesheet.
Judge D.T. Puttarangaswamy also ordered Mahesh to pay a fine of Rs. 13,000, of which Rs. 10,000 should be paid to the girl.
