A Protection of Children from Sexual Offences court in Patna on Monday sentenced the principal of a private school to death for raping an 11-year-old schoolgirl in 2018, reported India Today. The court also fined Arvind Kumar Rs 1 lakh.
The court also sentenced Abhishek Kumar, a teacher in the same school, to life term and fined him Rs 50,000. He was convicted of facilitating the minor girl to the chamber of the accused.
Judge Awdhesh Kumar said the court had to take a strong view of the incident so that it could serve as a deterrent, reported The Indian Express. The judge also lauded the efforts of the police to get strong evidence, including DNA test reports.
The girl was raped by Arvind Kumar for over a month. The two convicts had also made a video of the incident and threatened the girl not to talk about it or they would make the video viral.
The incident came to light after the girl was found to be pregnant. The parents of the girl had taken her to a doctor as they were worried about her frequent bouts of illness, according to PTI. The case was registered in September 2018.
The girl’s mother expressed satisfaction with the court’s verdict. “I lived under constant threats and went out of Patna for some time as well,” she said. “I am satisfied with the court verdict. It came before a day of Saraswati Puja.”
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