MUMBAI: With victims and eyewitnesses deposing in sign language, a special Pocso court recently convicted and sentenced to two years’ rigorous imprisonment the former headmaster and a retired teacher of a school for the deaf and aphasic for the sexual assault of three students between 2013 and 2014. The judge noted school is a “pious institute” and children trust their teachers and consider them as guiding light for life. “If this trust is betrayed and when (a) Godlike figure himself sexually tortures, no doubt the victims would carry a trauma for life,” special judge Satyanarayan R Navander said.Finding the accused, both in their 60s, guilty of aggravated sexual assault, the court said “the accused were teachers of the school for the deaf and dumb students i.e. the victims. That way, the victims were in their custody and care. Misusing their position of trust and taking undue advantage of their physical disability, the accused had committed sexual assault.”The court summoned experts in sign language to act as official interpreters. One expert, Sanyogita Devale, assisted during police investigation, while another, Bharati Lele, assisted during trial to translate the victims’ gestures into spoken word for the record. The initial statements of victims were video-recorded by police to ensure their gestures and signs were captured accurately before the trial began. The conviction came despite the primary informant and her mother turning hostile. The judge relied on “clinching evidence” provided by another victim and an eyewitness student, both of whom remained consistent in their deposition despite being subjected to lengthy cross-examination.The judge said no extraordinary leniency can be shown to the accused while awarding the sentence despite their advanced age. The judge noted that for the “physically challenged students”, with bare support, it was not easy to approach the police and file a complaint. “Only because of the status the teachers enjoy, the parents did not believe the victims. However, when the illicit acts persisted, when the victims multiplied and assault was made repeatedly… they raised the voice and ultimately approached the law-implementing machinery… The steps taken by them itself (sic) connotes the gravity of the torture they suffered,” the judge said.On her first day of deposition, the child who had first complained to police affirmed the allegations against the headmaster. After a delay in the trial, she returned to court and completely changed her story. She began claiming the headmaster treated everyone “like his child” and any touching was merely a “pat on the back” for good grades. The judge observed that the victims appeared to have been “won over” by the accused during the decade-long wait for trial.The judge also said that the later retractions by witnesses seemed to be the “outcome of undue influence and pressure of accused.”The defence claimed all the victims were “tutored” by a social activist because she wanted to force the school to adopt a sign-language curriculum. However, the victims deposed that while the activists “guided them on how to approach the police,” the decision to seek justice came from the students and their families. “From the assessment of the evidence of the victims and the witnesses… it is found that Sangita Gala (activist) certainly helped the victims and their parents to approach police and lodge complaint… No malice can be attributed to her for the efforts made… to secure justice for the specially abled victims,” the judge said. The duo were also fined Rs 25,000 each. Out of this amount, Rs 15,000 is to be given to each of the victims as compensation. “The amount of… Rs 15,000 per victim is inadequate and an additional compensation may be awarded by the state. For that purpose, the copy of judgment and order be forwarded to the District Legal Services Authority, Mumbai, to consider the case under the victim compensation scheme,” the judge said. The case dates back to July 2014, when a 13-year-old student, assisted by social activist Gala, filed a complaint at Dadar police station. The investigation revealed a pattern of systemic abuse occurring between June 2013 and June 2014. According to the victim, the headmaster frequently summoned young female students to his office under the guise of academic appreciation, where he would sexually assault them. Meanwhile, the teacher was found to have sexually harassed students during typing classes.
