Puducherry, Aug 11 (IANS): A special court in Puducherry on Wednesday sentenced a 31-year-old tuition teacher to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for sexually abusing a minor girl student.

Special Judge for POCSO cases, Justice J. Selvanadhan also sentenced Ranjith alias Ranjith Kumar of Shanmughapuram to one year rigorous imprisonment for criminally intimidating the girl. All the terms will run concurrently.

A compensation of Rs 4 lakh for the minor girl was also ordered.

Ranjith was taking tuition classes in computer applications and computer science after a degree in BCA which he had taken online. The 15-year-old Class 10 student joined his tuition class and he befriended her and later sexually abused her.

The prosecution argued that Ranjith had promised to marry the girl and was regularly exploiting her physically.

The girl narrated the incident to her parents after Ranjith started forcing her to leave her parents and to marry him. The shocked parents approached the child welfare committee, which conducted a medical check-up of the girl and found that she was physically abused.

A formal complaint was lodged with the Mettupalayam police who booked him under Section 6 (punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012, and Sections 376 (punishment for rape) and 506(1) (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and arrested him.