Srinagar(Jammu and Kashmir): The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Friday acquitted a teacher convicted of 20 years of jail for raping his student, saying the prosecution has failed to prove his guilt. Muhammad Maqbool Ganaie, a teacher of a government school in the Shopian district of the Kashmir Valley, was convicted by the District and Sessions Judge of Shopian in September 2022 on charges of raping his student in 2015. He was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment and was imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakhs.
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A Class VIII girl student had in 2015 accused Ganaie of raping her at his home where she had gone for tuition. The police arrested the teacher and booked him for rape under sections 376/F, 342, and 506 Ranbir Penal Code (RPC). Ganaie challenged his conviction in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court quashed the Shopian court order and asked the police to set him free.
The court ruled that it was dangerous to hold the accused guilty solely based on weak and shaky evidence. "The evidence presented against the teacher did not convincingly establish his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The evidence appears to be weak, fragile, lacking in credibility, does not prove connecting link between the accused and commission of offences," the court ruled.
