A court here has sentenced a 44-year-old school teacher to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting a minor girl student two years ago.

Additional District and Sessions Court Judge S Sivakadatcham handed out the sentence to Sivanesan working in a government high school at Surakudi in the district yesterday.

He pronounced the verdict and slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 on Sivanesan.

Hailing from Puducherry, the teacher assaulted the Class 6 girl during the lunch break on August 4, 2016, when she had visited him in the staff room to get her notebook corrected, according to the prosecution.

After abusing her, Sivanesan threatened her to not reveal the incident to anyone, they added. The student had suffered severe stress and injuries.

Her parents got to know about the incident only on August 11, they added.

On a complaint, Tirunallar police arrested Sivanesan.