Accused Of Supporting Rape Of A Minor In 2013, Headmistress Gets SC Relief

Mumbai: In 2013, a headmistress was arrested for helping a teacher rape a class 7 student. The headmistress allegedly closed the door when the teacher was raping the student.

Six years after she was arrested in a rape case filed by a student against a teacher, the headmistress of a Panvel school was granted relief in a 2013 case by the Supreme Court which also suspended her 10-year sentence, the headmistress was arrested along with the accused teacher and charged under the stringent POCSO Act.

As per the case, in 2013 the 46-year old teacher sexually assaulted the Class VII student inside the school, and the headmistress helped him commit the crime.

The victim had said that the teacher pushed her into a classroom one day and sexually assaulted her and that the headmistress bolted the door from outside. A few of her classmates also testified before the POCSO court that the teacher was a habitual offender and touched them inappropriately too. He also often made indecent comments in class and took nude photos of them, they said.

The headmistress, represented by advocates Mahesh Vaswani and Chandrabhushan Prasad in SC argued that the case was filed after two months despite the victim allegedly told her mother about the assault five days after the incident. Additionally, the doctor who was examined before the trial court stated that the victim did not have any injury on her private parts.

A Supreme Court bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and Navin Sinha, in an order last week released the headmistress on bail and called for all the records and proceedings of the case for a detailed hearing in September.

The SC, while granting relief to the headmistress, directed the trial court to apply conditions on her release, which she would have to follow till the time the case is decided in SC.

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