A special POCSO court in Odisha’s Sundergarh district has recently sentenced a ex-school headmaster to ten years in prison for sexually assaulting 11 female students in 2015.
Additional District Judge Mahendra Kumar Sutradhar passed the order sentencing the accused to ten years in jail.
According to a complaint made on November 30, 2015, by the father of a victim who was 10 years old at the time, the headmaster called his daughter to his office during break and sexually assaulted her. He was also committing the crime with a large number of other females. According to the complainant, no action was done after his daughter told another teacher and the chairman of the school’s managing committee about her ordeal. The girl then notified her mother, who informed her husband.
While working as the headmaster of a school in Lephripara block, the 62-year-old convict offended the modesty of 11 females.
After finding the survivors alone, the former headmaster molested and, in some cases, raped the girls in the school. He was apprehended on June 14, 2016 and has been in jail since then.
After hearing 43 witnesses, the court passed its decision, convicting the accused of 12 IPC violations and two violations under Section 6 of the POCSO Act.
He was also fined Rs 47,000 by the court. If he does not pay the fine, he will be sentenced to an extra six months in prison.
The Court also ordered the district legal services body to compensate the 11 victims for a total of Rs 28 lakh.
