Chamba teacher sentenced to life

DHARAMSHALA : A special court in Chamba on Tuesday convicted and sentenced a primary school teacher to life imprisonment for raping and sexually harassing eight minor girl students.

The court of special Judge Rajesh Tomar also sentenced the school’s head teacher to one-year jail for hiding the crime, said deputy district attorney Kanwar Uday Singh.

The two convicts are Raj Kumar, who was a junior basic teacher(JBT) in a primary school in Chowari sub-division of the district, and school head teacher (CHT) Sardar Singh.

In a complaint lodged in October 15, 2015, parents of girls, studying in Class 3, 4 and 5, accused Kumar of sexually harassing their wards. Following the complaint, Chowari police team accompanied by child councilors conducted a probe and the charges were found to be true.

It was also revealed that the head teacher of the school was privy to the crime.

“During the probe, it was revealed that the head teacher had knowledge of Kumar’s act but did not act or inform the authorities,” an official said.

Kumar was booked under Sections 354 A (sexual harassment), 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 6 and 12 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.The head teacher, Singh, was booked under Section 202 (Intentionally omits to give information of crime) of the IPC and Section 21 (2) of POCSO Act.

“Kumar has been sentenced to different jail terms including life imprisonment under various sections. The court has also imposed a fine of ₹1.5 lakh on Kumar while the head teacher has been slapped with fine of ₹ 15,000,” the official said.

Parents of the victims had staged a protest at the school premises and thrashed the accused teacher. The victims while narrating the ordeal to police team told that the accused would threaten them with a knife he had kept in his drawer. He had also hurt the victims on several occasion. During the investigation the police had recovered the knife from his possession.