Kochi, June 17: Fake antique dealer Monson Mavunkal was on Saturday sentenced to life imprisonment after the Ernakulam District POCSO court found him guilty of sexually assaulting a minor girl.
The case surfaced in 2022, when he was already in jail in a cheating case, after his former domestic help petitioned the police that her minor daughter was raped by him in July 2019 at his place.
The young girl was promised higher education by Mavunkal. The Court found Mavunkal guilty of the crime and sentenced him to life.
In September 2021, Mavunkal hogged the headlines after a person who was allegedly cheated to the tune of Rs 10 crore by him, approached Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan which eventually led to the swindler’s arrest.
Mavunkal used to bring several VIPs to his palatial residence, a part of which was converted into a museum to house his ‘precious’ antiques, which he claimed included the “staff of Moses” and “two of the 30 silver coins that were taken by Judas to cheat Jesus Christ”.
The police said that he also displayed a throne said to be used by Tipu Sultan, as well as a huge collection of old Qurans, Bibles (Old Testament and New Testament), and old handwritten copies of the Bhagavad Gita.
When the case first surfaced, pictures of the now retired state police chief Loknath Behra and serving additional director general of police Manoj Abraham visiting the “museum” of Mavunkal at Kochi went viral.
As the matter went before the court, it asked how these top police officials never thought of how a museum like this can function as the rules are very clear. It also sought to know why the police set up a daily beat box at his house and the museum.
After his arrest in 2021 in the cheating case, he is currently serving a jail term .
