Kannur: A POCSO Special Court in Thalassery on Friday sentenced BJP leader and schoolteacher K. Padmarajan, also known as Pappan Master, to life imprisonment until his natural death for repeatedly sexually assaulting a 10-year-old Muslim student in 2020.

The verdict came a day after the court convicted Padmarajan in the Palathayi child sexual abuse case. In addition to the life-till-death sentence, the court imposed two separate 20-year rigorous imprisonment terms under aggravated penetrative sexual assault provisions of the POCSO Act. He was fined a total of ₹2 lakh, with an additional year of imprisonment if the amount is not paid.

Padmarajan, a 49-year-old former BJP panchayat president and district leader of a Sangh-affiliated teachers’ organisation, had been working as a teacher at

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