Mumbai: A special court has sentenced a 35-year-old school teacher to five years of rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting four girl students between Nov 2015 and March 2016. The court observed that parents fear sending girls to school due to such incidents, thereby affecting their educational opportunities.
The special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court quoted Mahatma Gandhi, Sri Aurobindo, Dr S Radhakrishnan and Swami Vivekananda on the important role of teachers and the ideals they must stand for.
It’s the duty of the teacher to take care of pupils, says court
Stating “Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheshwaraha” (teacher is the creator, preserver, destroyer and lord himself), Special POCSO Judge Nazera S Shaikh said it’s the duty of the teacher to take care of pupils as a careful parent. Judge Shaikh said that the incident took place on school premises where the girls were studying and that the teacher took undue advantage of his position as their custodian and committed sexual assault.
The children had appeared before the court and told in their testimonies that he would feel their thighs under their skirt, touch their breasts and pinch them on their thighs by getting them alone on the pretext of an errand. He would ask them for help to recheck papers when no one was in the classroom or send them to keep articles in his locker and then touch them inappropriately.
Girls tell the ordeal to mother
Two among the children were sisters. The matter had come to light when their mother found their tiffin untouched and one of them looked frightened. On taking them in confidence, they told her about the incidents they had witnessed and also undergone.
The man had requested leniency as he is the only earning member of his family comprising his wife, aged parents and young children. The court said he deserves no leniency. Moreover, to send a message to society and prevent such types of offences, appropriate sentence needs to be imposed, the court said.
The man had claimed in his defence that another teacher had instigated the girls to file the complaint due to rivalry between them. The court called this a ‘flimsy story’ and noted that not one but four children had reported sexual harassment at his hands.
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