A Delhi court has directed a retired schoolteacher to pay a student compensation of Rs 1 lakh to for parading him naked in school 12 years ago.
Additional Sessions Judge Pratibha Rani ordered the release of convict P.C. Gupta (65) on probation of good conduct for two years, allowing his appeal against a 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.
According to the victim’s counsel, the Government Boys Sr Secondary School student was beaten up on September 25, 1997, by Gupta and not allowed to put on his clothes after he was caught taking a bath in a water tank of the school.