DEHRADUN: A special POCSO court on Monday awarded 20 years of rigorous imprisonment to eight people apart from imposing Rs 10 lakh fine on a boarding school in the 2018 gangrape of a minor. Of the eight, three are minors and two happen to be women.
The survivor, the then 14-year-old student of a boarding school in Dehradun, was reportedly raped and got pregnant. Following this, the school administration made ger undergo an abortion. The director of the school was also involved in the incident.
Special POCSO judge Rama Pandey sentenced school principal Jitendra Kumar Sharma three years in prison, director Lata Gupta and administrative officer Deepak Malhotra and his wife Tannu to nine years in prison each. They were found guilty of covering up the crime to save the reputation of the school.
The court imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on the school management.
The main culprit, Sarabjeet who raped the minor was put behind the bars for 20 years. The court also ordered the three minors to surrender before the juvenile court. Sarabjeet and the three others had taken the minor student, who stayed in the school hostel, to the bushes and gang-raped her in August 2018.
The case has rocked the state as well as the nation along with tainting the reputation of boarding schools in Dehradun.