Bombay HC stops rape accused from entering school premises

Mumbai: The Bombay high court  on Monday restrained the trustee of an Andheri school, who had been accused of rape, from entering the school premises until further orders, after the parents of some of the students approached it.

The trustee of the school allegedly raped a three-year-old student of the school in November 2016. While the trustee was booked under POCSO Act, he was arrested in November 2017 and granted bail in the same month. Soon after getting the bail, the trustee allegedly started visiting the school thus leading to apprehension on the part of the parents.

However, the mother of the victim filed a plea in HC seeking cancellation of his bail.

The parents of 42 other students from the school also filed an application in the HC seeking that he be directed to stay away from the school since they feared for the safety of their children.

The Counsel for the victim's mother, argued that the statement given by the victim is cohesive and consistent and also identified accused.

Therefore last year order given by sessions court in favour of accused to grant him bail is not according to law. "However, surprisingly, the sessions court held that the victim's statement was full of inconsistencies," the lawyer said.

The trustee's counsel Shirish Gupte, told the court that the prosecution had also told the sessions court that it had not found any incriminating evidence against the accused.

Justice Revati Mohite-Dere,  heard the arguments and then the court asked the IO  and the sessions court prosecutor to file an affidavit in this regard and kept the matter on Wednesday.