Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused pre-arrest bail to the chairman and secretary of a school in Maharashtra's Badlapur town where two minor girls were sexually assaulted by a male attendant. A single bench of Justice R N Laddha said prima facie there is material to show the two accused were aware of the alleged incident before August 16 but they failed to take any steps to report the same to police or local authority.
Justice Laddha further said the offence is serious and the court has to consider the plight of the minor victims. "The victims are minors. The trauma that they have endured can profoundly affect their adolescent years leaving them with lasting psychological scars," the court said. It is undisputed that applicants are persons responsible for managing the school, the court held. "There is prima facie material indicating that the victims parents' had voiced their grievances to the class teacher and other staff members.
The applicants were aware of the incident before August 16. Despite knowing, they did not report the incident to police," the HC said. The bench said the delay in lodging of the case was "primarily because of applicants' negligence for reasons known only to them." There is a legal obligation on persons to report the offence if they are aware or made aware of it, it added. The court further said the CCTV footage of the school premises from the day of the incident is missing.
The HC referred to provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and also judgments passed by the Supreme Court, which cast a duty and obligation on a person to promptly report to police any sexual assault offence once they are made aware of the same."This duty is not merely a procedure that can be overlooked. The repercussion or failure to report such offences are serious," the HC said.
It said courts must exercise caution while dealing with matters where schools or educational institutions have failed to report sexual offences against minors. The two accused moved the HC seeking pre-arrest bail after a sessions court rejected their plea for the same. They claimed that they were unaware of the alleged offence and hence could not be held liable for it. The duo further claimed there had been an unexplained delay in lodging the FIR.
They also raised suspicion on whether the incident took place, claiming the two victims had attended the flag-hoisting ceremony in the school on August 15 and no complaint was raised then.
Public Prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar opposed the plea, noting the accused had not taken prompt action after being informed about the incident. They failed to take immediate action, he said. The two accused have been booked under various provisions of the POCSO Act for not reporting the incident to the police immediately and for negligence.
Two girls - aged four and five - were allegedly sexually abused inside the toilet of the school by a male attendant in August, as per police. The case was being probed by the Badlapur police. But after a public outcry over serious lapses in the police investigation, the Maharashtra government set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to conduct a probe into the case. The male attendant, Akshay Shinde, was subsequently arrested but was killed in a shoot-out by police on September 23. The school's chairman and secretary have not yet been apprehended, as per police.
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