Punjab HC upholds 10-yr jail to school staff guilty of raping a dalit girl
Punjab Newsline Network
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
By Gurpreet Singh Mehak
FATEHGARH SAHIB: More than 16 years after a Class X student from
Government High School, Madhopur of district Fatehgarh Sahib was raped
by her own school staff members , the Punjab and Haryana High Court
has recently upheld the 10-year sentence awarded to them by the
trialcourt.
During the visit of the school Tuesday, this correspondent found that
most of teaching and non-teaching staff was not aware about the
incident. Only a single teacher informed that the guility staff
members were dismissed from the service by education department.
During visit of the village, it was found that the villagers also does
not want to discuss the issue as the name of the village was
highlighted only for wrong reasons. Some villagers while pleading
anonymity claimed that all this happened due to groupism in the
village at that time.
The victim belongs to Dalit family and her father was ex-serviceman
was killed in accident while mother had shifted to another place after
selling house at village. As per villager the victim and her sister
was now married and victim is presently in a foreign country.
It may be mentioned here that when the victim was X student of the
school, she was enrolled for a sports meet, even though she was not a
sportsperson. The visit to Fahetgarh Sahib turned out to be a
nightmare after she was raped.
The four accused staff members including some teachers Balbir Singh,
Amarjit Singh, Ranjit Singh and Mohan Lal Verma — were booked on
November 2, 1994. According to the victim, the sister of an accused
forced her into a room at her residence. At the time of the incident,
Balbir Singh, Amarjit Singh and Mohan Lal were also present, besides
Ranjit Singh.
The victim had alleged that the accused compelled her to go to
Fahetgarh Sahib for the meet, along with 15-16 other girls on October
24, 1994. There, Balbir Singh threatened her to take a lift from Mohan
Lal on a scooter. She was later made to sit on Ranjit Singh's cycle.
The accused asked her to accompany him to his sister's house; and was
pushed inside a room by Jasbir Kaur, before bolting the door from
outside. The high court Justice while delivering recent verdict ruled,
"The appellant in the instant case are the teachers and the victim is
their student….The state of mind of prosecutrix can well be imagined,
having been raped by her own teachers, who are otherwise in our social
setup put on a pedestal, which accords them an even higher status,
respect and position than which is attached to one's own parents. In
fact, the prosecutrix exhibited a lot of courage in coming out with
the incident of rape."
He further added, "From the record, it is made out that the victim
comes from the poorest strata of society. The appellants are well
placed and therefore the change in the statement of the victim and her
mother was certainly made under duress, which is very evident and
which subsequently resulted in some sort of a compromise between the
parties." Concluding, he asserted, "I have no hesitation in
recording the fact that the alleged compromise is a manifestation of
subjugation on account of unequal placement at social and economic
pedestal. The testimony of prosecution was consistent till the time
her father was alive."
gurpreetsinghmehak@gmail.com
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