Serving justice, a special court on Tuesday sentenced a PhD scholar to five concurrent life imprisonments for sexually assaulting minor victims and posting videos to earn money in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur. The serial offender identified as Victor James Raja (35) is a PhD scholar from Tamil Nadu. He was sentenced for aggressive penetrative sexual assault on minors under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. He was also fined Rs 6,54,000 for multiple offences, the officials said.
Apart from that, the court also ordered him to pay Rs 4 lakh to each of the victims. As per the officials, the special court in Thanjavur proclaimed justice after nearly 14 months of a chargesheet filed by the CBI against Raja. He was arrested by the CBI for sexually assaulting eight minors aged between 5 to 18 years, recording the act and selling it on the Internet to make money.
CBI's investigation
"The acts of sexual exploitation included penetrative sexual assaults, digitally recording the sexual abuse, criminal intimidation of minor victims, forcing and instigating minor victim(s) to perform sexual activities with other minor victims and also with the accused," an official said. In its charge sheet filed before a POCSO court, the CBI had alleged that Raja had sexually abused a child for the last four years.
"It was further alleged that the accused forced victims to perform penetrative sexual acts on them as well as on other minor children, including a minor victim girl; clicked photographs and recorded videos; forced them to watch sexual acts with other adult person; threatened them with publishing the pictures and video on social media and for bringing more minor girls," a CBI spokesperson had said after the charge sheet.
How the horrific crime was uncovered?
It was only when the CBI found Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) images and videos from Interpol's International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) database, that the crime came to light. To trace the accused, the probe agency used specialised tools for forensic analysis which led them to Thanjavur.
"Searches were conducted on the premises of the accused which led to the recovery of incriminating electronic gadgets. The accused was arrested and is in judicial custody," the statement said. During the course of the investigation, the probe team found that Raja had sexually assaulted eight children for a couple of years, which included both boys and girls. In most cases, the CBI alleged, the victims were less than 12 years of age.
(With PTI Inputs)
ALSO READ | Goa: Man arrested for sexually assaulting deaf and dumb woman
