A mathematics teacher who raped and abducted his 13-year-old student in 2022 was sentenced to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment by a Surat Special Fast Track Court (POCSO) on Thursday. The court also ordered him to pay Rs 1 lakh to the survivor as compensation.
The court said that the teacher had violated the trust and dignity of his student and had committed a grave mistake as a protector of society. It also noted the rise in the cases of sexual harassment of minor girls and the need for strict laws to prevent such crimes.
The teacher, Pappu alias Ajit Gupta, had raped the girl in a deserted place after school hours and proposed to marry her in September 2022. He later took her to Indore in Madhya Pradesh, where her father tracked him down and brought her back. The father had filed a rape complaint on October 31, 2022.
The police had registered offences under IPC sections 363, 366, 376 (3), and POCSO Act’s sections 4 and 6. The case trial began in the Special Fast Track Court (POCSO) under Judge SN Solanki. The prosecution and the defense had argued on the relationship between a teacher and a student and the impact of such an act on society.
The Additional Public Prosecutor, Dipesh Dave, expressed satisfaction with the judgment and said that the court had considered their arguments.
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