Pune’s Special Court on POCSO cases on Tuesday sentenced 20 years of rigorous imprisonment to a private coaching class teacher who was arrested in 2021 for repeatedly raping his 11-year-old student.
“The convicted teacher, aged 56 at the time of the arrest in 2021, lived in the same neighbourhood as that of the victim,” Pune Police said.
During the police investigation, it was learnt that the convicted teacher used to run a private coaching class at his home and had repeatedly raped and sexually abused the 11-year-old victim from August to October 2021 and had threatened to murder her sister.
Following this, the teacher was arrested by the Pune Police under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in October 2021 and registered an offence under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 376 and 376 (3) for rape, as well as relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The then Assistant Inspector Sudha Chaudhari investigated the case and filed a chargesheet within the court’s stipulated time. Chaudhari is now relieving her duty as a Police Inspector with the Mumbai police.
On Tuesday, the Special Court for Pocso cases found the teacher guilty of rape, unnatural offences, and criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code and also with various provisions of the Pocso Act. And fined the convict with Rs 37,000, within a specific time, failing which would result in nine months of additional sentence.
The case was handled by Advocate Nitin Kondhe as the Public Prosecutor.
Rajkumar Shinde, Zone 5 Deputy Commissioner of Police, has announced a police reward for Inspector Sudha Chaudhari and Constable Dinesh Jadhav of the prosecution branch for handling the sensitive case properly.
