Delhi High Court sets aside teacher's bail in Janakpuri POCSO case

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday set aside a trial court order granting bail to a Janakpuri school teacher in a case related to the rape of a three-year-old girl by a staff member at the school premises.

The teacher had earlier been arrested for concealing the incident from authorities. However, a trial court granted her bail on May 20 within days of arrest.

Today, Justice Saurabh Banerjee said the trial court wrongly granted her bail on the consideration that the minor victim had failed to disclose her name in the complaint.

However, the Court noted that the minor had subsequently disclosed the female teacher's name and identified her by her physical appearance.

“Material/ relevant considerations have been ignored by the learned Trial Court, especially, while it was dealing with one under the POCSO Act” the Court stated.

It added that trial court had also overlooked the fact that the teacher had worked for thirteen years at the same school and could tamper with evidence and influence witnesses in her favour.

The Court noted that the trial court had granted the bail just six days after her arrest.

"Strangely, and though there is no bar, the learned Trial Court proceeded to grant regular bail to the respondent barely within six days of her arrest, when a bare perusal of the impugned order does not reflect anything which could/ may have prompted it to do so," the Court said.

The Court thus set aside the bail order and directed the school teacher to surrender before the jurisdictional Additional Sessions Judge (POCSO Court) within three days of this judgment.

The Court passed the order while dealing with prosecution's plea challenging the May 20 bail order passed by an Additional Sessions Judge of Dwarka courts.

A case under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was registered by Janakpuri police on a complaint made by the victim's mother.

The incident is stated to have taken place on April 30 when the child, complained of severe pain after returning home from her school.

According to the prosecution case, she told her mother that a "bada sa ladka" (elder boy) at school had taken her downstairs and inserted a finger into her private part. 

Subsequently, a 57-year-old man, the clerk/caretaker at the school, was arrested in the case. His bail was already cancelled by the High Court earlier.

The allegations against the class teacher surfaced later during the course of the investigation, while recording the minor’s statement.

The victim stated that after the incident, the teacher had taken her to the basement, removed her clothes, cleaned the bloodstains, and given her sweets.

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju with advocates Aman Usman appeared for the State.

Senior Advocate KK Manan with advocates MS Bammi, Uditi Bali, Nida Akhtar, Manish Kumar and KS Choudhary appeared for the school teacher.