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U.P.: POCSO court awards life term to man for raping minor student
Special judge, POCSO court, on July 26 awarded the life sentence to Pawan Gupta who was a music teacher at a play school in Aashiana area of Lucknow when the incident took place five years ago
A POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act, 2012, court has awarded life imprisonment to a teacher of a play school who is accused of raping a two-and-a-half-year-old girl student five years ago.
The court also imposed a fine of ₹25,000 on the accused. The amount will be deposited as a fixed deposit in a bank in the minor girl’s name and will be given to over once she becomes major. Arvind Mishra, special judge, POCSO court, on July 26 awarded the life sentence to Pawan Gupta who was a music teacher at a play school in Aashiana area in the state capital. The incident took place on July 5, 2017.
The court also recommended action against the then principal of the play school Annapurna Saxena and school management under the POCSO Act for trying to hush-up the incident when the minor girl’s mother approached the school with a complaint.
The court has directed to send a copy of the order to the additional director general of police (prosecution) and the police commissioner, Lucknow, for taking action against the then principal of the school. In addition to this, the court has recommended action against investigating officer of the case Rajkaran Varma for not including in his investigation the school’s CCTV footage of the day on which the incident took place.
According to government advocates Abhishek Upadhyay and Surendra Pratap Singh, the survivor had recognised the music teacher in school when her mother went there along with her daughter to report the matter to the principal. The girl had also recognised the teacher in the court during the trial of the case, added the two lawyers.
