Mumbai: POCSO Court Sentences Teacher For Molesting 3 Minors

On Tuesday, a special POCSO court in Mumbai sentenced a 28-year-old teacher from Govandi to five years of rigorous imprisonment for sexually harassing three female students who were of ages below 12 years. 

As per the reports, the mother of one of the survivors filed a police complaint against the teacher.

How did the survivor's family get to know about the abuse?

On September 25, 2019, the elder sister of one of the survivors went to pick her up from school. She got into talking to her friends who revealed that the teacher had been inappropriately touching them. The elder sister then confronted the survivor and confirmed the allegations. 

Then, the parents approached the accused teacher but he was not available. Subsequently, they filed a complaint at the Shivaji Nagar police station on September 26, 2019. The accused teacher tried to defend himself by citing the delay in filing the complaints and the lack of medical evidence. 

However, one of the survivors testified to the allegations by recalling the ordeal she faced. She said that she was touched inappropriately by the accused in September 2019. She also added that touching caused so much fear in her mind that she stopped going to school for several days by feigning illness. 

The court's remarkable statements

Holding the teacher guilty, the court said, "The accused is not a layman but a teacher. The only career that influences other professions is teaching. Hence, the teacher is expected to act as a protector. Such heinous acts by the accused have cast a lifelong psychological and emotional impact on the victims.”

The court further quashed the teacher's claim of delay in filing the complaint and said that the survivors, who were below 12 years of age, were traumatised and so they chose to stay home for their safety. They opened up only when they felt secure in discussing it with their family members.  

The court also dismissed the claim of false accusation by saying, "The victims' testimony, corroborated by other witnesses, holds firm. No probability is brought on record to falsely implicate the accused.”