Mumbai: School trustee cleared in sexual abuse case

MUMBAI: A special Pocso Act court on Saturday acquitted the foreign national trustee, 58, of an international school who was booked on charges of sexually abusing two three-year-old students-a boy and a girl-in 2017. Another accused, a woman teacher who the prosecution claimed had allegedly told the girl to keep mum when he had complained to her, was acquitted for abetting the sexual abuse.

The minor girl was among the 13 prosecution witnesses who deposed, but failed to identify the accused before the court. The boy did not depose. Special judge A D Deo acquitted the duo after the prosecution failed to prove its case. The court said the trustee was not to leave its jurisdiction without court permission until expiry of appeal period.




While the trustee had been in jail since April last year, the teacher was granted bail soon after her arrest on November 21, 2017. The trustee, a father of two, has been living in India for over 20 years. The teacher is mother to a toddler. She has since left the school.

Lawyers for the trustee, Anil Kumar Menon, Suren Shetty and Hitesh D Buch, had maintained that he was innocent and there was no evidence against him . The teacher's advocate, Ashok Gupte, submitted that the child did not identify them and the prosecution had failed to prove the roles attributed to them.

An FIR was filed on May 18, 2017. The mother of the girl, the complainant, had alleged the trustee sexually assaulted her daughter between November 2016 and March 2017.

The mother had told police that on May 15, 2017, the child confided to her after she saw her touching her private parts and asked her the reason. The mother said the girl said her class teacher took her and a male classmate to the loft of the classroom and at that time a male teacher (later alleged to be the trustee) was also there. The mother stated that the child said that at that time, under the garb of playing, the male teacher came close to her and touched her in a manner that caused pain. The mother told police that she had also informed the boy's mother.

The trial commenced in May 2018. While parents of both children deposed, the child was the 11th witness to testify. Every effort was made to ensure the child testified in a conducive atmosphere. After the first attempt to get the five-year-old to testify in November 2018 did not work, the Dindoshi court allowed the child to testify in a child-friendly court room at the city civil and sessions court. Proceedings were conducted in-camera with only those required present. Also present were a psychiatrist and an interpreter who spoke the child's mother tongue. When shown the accused via video-conferencing the child did not identify them.

While statements of the victim's classmate were part of the chargesheet, he did not depose during trial. His mother had told court that she did not want him to testify.

The accused heaved a collective sigh of relief when the court pronounced the verdict around 1pm. Among those present were family members and parents from the school who had supported them.