coimbatore the father of a 23yearold woman was sentenced to life term on monday evening the mahila court for sexually abusing her for four years after she turned 17 and making her pregnant mahila court judge m p subramanian delivered the verdict saying that the victim her mother p kalamani50 and her younger brother p sakthivel 21 had turned hostile the victim told the court that she was in love with raja who was responsible for her pregnancy her father r palanisamy 51 advised her to quit the relationship and continue her education he had taken her to a private hospital in ramanathapuram where an abortion was conducted the judge said that the three witnesses had turned hostile to save palanisamy and preserve the familys honour the court said that raja was an imaginary person who was created by the three prosecution witnesses the 164 crpc statements given by the victim and medical evidence proved that palanisamy was indeed guilty judge subramanian announced that the court sentenced palanisamy to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of rs 5000 under section 376 i minor girl rape of indian penal code in addition to seven years rigorous imprisonment and rs 3000 fine under section 506 ii criminal intimidation of ipc both sentences will run concurrently before delivering the judgment public prosecutor r sarojini demanded maximum punishment for the accused even though the three witnesses of prosecution had turned hostile the medical evidence and 164 crpc statements were proved before the court the real accused has been punished said sarojini the court cannot rely on statements deposed before a judicial magistrate by the victim to convict an accused especially when the same victim had gone against her own opposition before the appellate court the cause of the pregnancy was not proved i will challenge the judgment in madras high court said g thasaratharaman after the verdict the rapist was taken to coimbatore central prison on january 24 the court found r palanisamy then 45 guilty of raping his daughter he pleaded before the judge that he was innocent of the charges leveled against him the victim had lodged a complaint of rape with ramanathapuram police station on july 31 2009 and an fir was registered against palanisamy on the same day by inspector t h ganesh the victim stated in her complaint that her father palanisamy and kalamani were living in krishnan temple street in ramanathapuram palanisamy a drunkard owned an auto rickshaw kalamani was employed at a workshop and worked in shifts the victim was studying in class 12 while her brother was a class 10 student when she was raped in march 2006 a drunken palanisamy raped his 17yearold daughter at his house when his wife was at work on november 2 2007 she was found to be six months pregnant the foetus was aborted