A Delhi court has convicted a school teacher of seriously sexually assaulting a minor student and outraging her dignity, besides sexually assaulting and criminally threatening five minor girls in 2015.
The court said that if a man comments on a particular body part of a woman in an absurd and disgusting manner, it reflects his “sexual intentions”.
Additional Sessions Judge Amit Sehrawat was hearing the case against a school laboratory assistant, who was charged under penal provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act and sexual harassment.
Special public prosecutor Sandeep Kaur said the five victims have jointly filed an FIR against the accused, who is an employee of the Directorate of Education.
“It is a settled principle of law that in cases of sexual offenses against women, the testimony of the victim alone can be sufficient to prove the prosecution’s case, but in the present case, the court said in its order passed on November 30. This is not a case of one victim but there are five victims who have testified against the accused.
The court said that the testimony of all the victims was credible and the allegations against the accused were the same.
The court said, “There are certain facts which the victim discloses in one of his statements but does not disclose in the other statement, but in this case the victims are school going children and their age is below 12 years, hence they It cannot be expected that their statements will be exactly the same at each stage.
The court also rejected the defense counsel’s contention that the girls had filed a “false case” because they were angry with the accused. The court said that the victims had earlier complained to the school principal.
The court said video clips were recovered from the accused’s mobile phone, which proved that he had filmed the girls when they were playing or dancing in school.
The court said the accused commented on the body parts of one victim, touched the shoulder and waist of another girl and made comments about lactating mothers and babies of all five victims. The court said that considering the overall conduct of the accused, it could be said that he “did all this with sexual intent”.
The court said, “Whenever any person comments in an absurd and disgusting manner on any particular part of the body of a woman and that too about a part of the body which is relevant to the dignity of the woman, it is the responsibility of that man to Reflects sexual intent.”
The court also said that no normal sane person would ever make such comments or behavior towards a girl child without any sexual intention.
While holding the accused guilty of criminal intimidation, the court said, “The accused had threatened the victims that if they divulged the conversation of the accused to anyone, he would implicate them in a fraud case.” The punishment in this regard will be discussed later. There will be a hearing.
