CHENNAI: Holding that a teacher should be a role-model to students, the Madras High Court has refused to suspend the operation of a lower court order imposing 10 years RI on a school teacher who sexually abused a 11-year-old girl student.
“The petitioner, as a teacher, is to impart education and also preach moral and ethic principles to the students. But, in this case the teacher had indulged in an act of molesting his minor student, which cannot be pardoned at this stage,” Justice RMT Teekaa Raman said and dismissed the petition from Sivanesan.
The petitioner was found guilty and convicted for an offence under Sec. 6 of POCSO Act and sentenced to undergo RI for 10 years with a fine of Rs 5,000, by the trial court. The prosecution case was that on August 4, 2016, Sivanesan, a teacher in Government Middle School at Surakudy, Thirunallar, (Puducherry), sexually abused the child causing tear injuries.
The trial court awarded 10 years RI. Hence, the present appeal. The judge said the evidence of the prosecution witnesses is cogent, unblemished and corroborative one about the act of the accused. “Considering the entirety of the circumstances and the evidence placed as noted above by the witnesses, I am not inclined to grant the relief for the present,” the judge said.