A court here on Friday sentenced a man to life imprisonment for repeatedly sexually assaulting his minor daughter and also awarded life sentence to his wife for remaining silent over the incident. Delivering the judgment, POCSO judge J Radhika imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on the parents. The judge also directed the State government to pay a solatium of Rs 5 lakh to the girl.

The prosecution case was that the 46-year-old man, working in a coconut farm, sexually assaulted his 14-year-old daughter repeatedly at Anamalai in the district. Despite narrating the incident to the mother, she kept quiet, following which the man continued the sexual assault.

The girl informed her school mates, who in turn told their class teacher and lodged a complaint with police, based on which the couple were arrested in June 2019 and were out on bail. The case was going on at the court hearing cases relating to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act here.