Chennai, May 29 -- A Chennai court on Wednesday convicted a 37-year-old biryani vendor, A Gnanasekaran, in connection with the sexual assault of a 19-year-old woman student on Anna University premises in December last year, holding that the prosecution has proved the case beyond reasonable doubt. Mahila court judge M Rajalakshmi said she will pronounce the quantum of sentence on June 2, even as the prosecution sought "maximum punishment" for the convict. The judge found Gnanasekaran, who was brought to the court from the Puzhal central prison, guilty of all the charges, including sexual assault, framed against him under relevant sections of BNS, the Information Technology Act, and the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act. The incident came to light after the victim lodged a police complaint on December 23 last year, alleging that Gnanasekaran threatened her when she was with a male friend and sexually assaulted her. The FIR stated that the accused recorded her private moments with her friend on his mobile phone and threatened to leak the video and send it to her father and the college authorities. He allegedly physically assaulted the woman's friend, a third-year student. Gnanasekaran, who faced 20 petty cases in the past, was convicted in six cases related to theft and housebreaking. Taking a suo motu cognisance of the case, the Madras high court transferred the probe to an all-women SIT, which filed a charge sheet in February. Talking to reporters on the Wednesday's proceedings in the court, a government counsel said that Gnanasekaran sought a lenient sentence claiming he was the sole bread-winner of the family. "The prosecution strongly objected to this and sought the maximum punishment," the counsel said, adding that the prosecution filed 11 charges against Gnanasekaran and proved all of them using documentary and forensic evidence. Hailing the court verdict, chief minister MK Stalin said, "I keep telling the police that crimes should be prevented and if a crime is committed, the guilty should be punished. We have shattered the slander from opposition parties who are trying to play cheap politics." Opposition AIADMK general secretary Edappadi Palaniswami, credited the state-wide protests with the speedy conviction....