Madras High Court Reverses Acquittal Of Teacher, Sentences Him To 10 Years of Imprisonment For Assaulting A Minor Student.
The Madras High Court set aside a trial court order acquitting a school teacher in Puducherry who had been charged with sexually assaulting a minor. The High Court awarded him 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs. 10,000.
In the case of State vs. Earlam Periera (Cr. No. 38 of 2018), a criminal appeal was filed under Section 378 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, to set aside the judgment passed by the learned Special Judge (Under the POSCO Act, 2012) Puducherry, dated 06.10.2020 in Spl.S.C.No. 18 of 2018.
Originally, the appellant/Police had registered the case against the respondent for the offense under Section 6 and 10 of the POCSO [Protection of Children from Sexual Offences] Act, 2012 and Section 506 (ii) of IPC.
The Madras High court observed that several culprits are escaping from cases due to "technical reasons and unfortunately, the Investigation Wing is also not up to the standard. Due to either a defect in investigation or fault in the investigation, in most of the cases, the culprits are escaping. Therefore, mere technicalities should not be allowed to stand in the way of justice."
The court further said, "Considering the representations made by the respondent/accused and the age of the victim child and the offense committed, which is grave in nature and also the fact that the respondent has committed the offense in the school itself while working as a teacher, there are no mitigating circumstances to award lesser punishment."
Respondent was an English teacher at St. Joseph Play School, Puducherry, was acquitted by the trial court on October 6, 2020, after the court found the child was not able to divulge the details in all.
Observing the case, Madras High Court judge P. Velmurugan said, "The victim, being a child, who was only about four years at the time of the incident, cannot speak about the occurrence in all the stages by parrot version. It can not be expected from the victim that she should remember all the incidents and the acts of the accused. For the said reason, we cannot throw away the evidence of the victim child, who in fact was subjected to sexual assault by the respondent/accused."
The court further said, "The learned trial judge has failed to consider the facts that the victim was below four years of age and she may not know at the time what was happening to her and whether the act of the respondent was good or bad. In that situation, the court cannot expect the victim child to speak about the occurrence in all the stages in a parrot version."
The Respondent is said to have sexually assaulted the victim on multiple occasions prior to April 2018. The child is alleged to have been made to forcibly sit on his lap after school hours. On March 27, 2018, the man is even said to have threatened to kill the victim if she disclosed the incidents of sexual harassment to anyone.