Teacher asked to pay Rs 1L for parading student naked

A Delhi court has directed a retired school teacher to pay a compensation of Rs one lakh to a student for parading him naked for taking bath in a water tank in the school premises 12 years ago.

A Delhi court has directed a retired school teacher to pay a compensation of Rs one lakh to a student for parading him naked for taking bath in a water tank in the school premises 12 years ago.

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Additional Sessions Judge Pratibha Rani ordered release of convict P C Gupta (65) on probation of good conduct for two years, allowing his appeal against one year jail term and a fine of Rs 2,500 awarded to him by a Metropolitan Magistrate.

"I do not find any special reason for not granting probation to the appellant (Gupta) especially when he has faced the agony of trial for 12 years and is no more in service so as to be in a position to repeat the offence," the court said.

Even though the act of Gupta needed to be condemned, the sentence was "disproportionate" to the nature of offence, the court said.

It, however, directed Gupta to deposit Rs one lakh which would be paid to the victim as compensation.

The counsel for the student, on his part, had opposed grant of probation to him contending if such benefit was extended to such type of teachers, it would send a wrong signal to the potential offenders.

According to the counsel, the victim, a student of Government Boys Sr Secondary School here, was beaten up mercilessly on September 25, 1997 by Gupta and was not even allowed to put on his clothes as he was caught taking bath in a water tank of the school.