Observing that there is a persistent doubt in mind if the incident narrated by the victim occured or it, a special court has acquitted a 48-year-old accounts teacher with a Ghatkopar college in a case where he was alleged to have made an unwelcome advance on a 17-year-old student.
As per her complaint, the student on March 8, 2018, was waiting to meet her class teacher and this teacher had approached her and asked why she had scored less in book keeping. She had told him she was unwell. He had then asked her to meet him in the library. She went to the library and he came there and then asked her to come with him to the adjoining classroom. Here, he touched her shoulder and taking her near the wall, asked her for a kiss and offered to increase her marks in return. She pushed him and walked away. She complained that he threatened her thereafter not to disclose the incident to anyone.
The court stated that if the victim’s evidence is perused, it does not reflect that she was harassed by the accused anytime before the incident. It also noted that during that time examinations were on and students and teachers were regularly moving in the premises and the prosecution has not collected CCTV footage or examined any independent witnesses. Two friends of the victim had deposed, but the court noted that they are her friends. It also pointed to the ‘inordinate unexplained delay’ of 17 days in lodging the FIR. “Therefore on perusal of the entire evidence on record brought by the prosecution, there is persistent doubt in mind that whether the incident as narrated by the victim has occurred or not and in absence of any corroboration I do not find that the evidence of the victim can be relied upon,” it stated.
It further said that it has come in the cross-examination of the victim that the accused was very strict and was punishing the students. “She has also deposed that the accused has punished her many times and has asked her to sit on the floor..” it noted.
