Mumbai: A special court designated under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) on Monday sentenced a 43-year-old sports coach of a BMC school to five years of rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting students of Class 8 and 9 whom he had taken on the pretext of a tournament to Alibag in 2016.
The prosecution had examined five students before court, who had made allegations against the man. At the time of the incidents, he had only recently joined as a ‘lagori’ teacher at the municipal school. The tournament for which he had taken them, never took place and he informed them that someone had passed away due to which it got cancelled. He then took the 14 girls who were also accompanied by a woman sports coach of the school to a resort. Some incidents of sexual assault took place at the resort. A victim had also narrated before the court how he would call a classmate to the sports room in the school regularly and she would return only after around 10 minutes. On being asked, the classmate would be quiet and would not tell why she had been called by him.
The police had recorded statements of at least eight girl students while probing the case. After the man was found guilty, prosecutor Veena Shelar sought strict punishment for the accused while making submissions for the quantum of punishment. Special Judge SC Jadhav also imposed a fine of Rs. 10,000 on the man, in default of paying which, he will have to serve two more months in prison. A detailed judgment is yet to be made available.
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