MUMBAI: The
Bombay high court on Monday cancelled bail granted to a trustee of an international school accused of sexually assaulting a three-year-old student. It directed the 57-year-old to surrender immediately and expedited the trial, asking for it to be completed in four months.
Justice
Revati Mohite-Dere held that the bail order passed by the sessions court last November in favour of the trustee, a French national, was "perverse" and "unsustainable" given the material on record. The HC observed that "prima facie, there is sufficient material'' pointing to his "complicity''. The child had identified the accused through a photograph, it added. The alleged abuse occurred since November 2016, the FIR had alleged.
The trustee's advocate Hitesh Buch's pleas for a stay on the bail cancellation or for time to surrender were dismissed. "Once I come to the conclusion that the order granting bail is perverse, there is no question of granting time,'' she said.
Justice Mohite-Dere observed that while the issue of liberty for an accused pending trial is a "fair consideration'', what is more important is "interest of society'' and "fair trial''. If released on bail, the accused could tamper with witnesses and evidence and, hence, has to be taken into custody.
The victim's mother had moved the HC for cancellation of his bail, granted on November 24, 2017. Her lawyer Vijay Hiremath had called the sessions court order perverse and liable to be set aside to prevent it from becoming a precedent.
A group of parents linked to the school also moved the HC through an intervention to support the bail cancellation plea. Their lawyer, Mihir Desai, argued that he could tamper with witnesses, who were school staff. On the other hand, over 600 parents support the trustee, claimed his counsel Shirish Gupte. Though many had turned up in court, none had filed any intervention plea before the HC.
The HC observed how the Dindoshi court had recorded a submission, attributed to a prosecutor there, of there being "prima facie no incriminating evidence'' against the trustee, though a police officer informed the HC that the police had opposed the trustee's bail plea. The judge also scolded the police for summoning a child witness to the police station to record his statement, and directed cops they should go to their houses.
