Bihar school principal sentenced to death for raping 11-year-old six times in two months

A Bihar court has sentenced a school principal in Bihar to death for raping an 11-year-old student. The Special Court judge Awadhesh Kumar ordered Aravind, the prime accused principal, to pay Rs 15 Lakh to the victim and Rs 1 Lakh as fine, while the co-accused Abhishek Kumar, a teacher in the school, has to pay Rs 50,000 fine, apart from serving a life sentence for conspiring with Aravind. The judge said that given the nature of the case, he is unable to impose anything less than the capital punishment.

The incident came to light in September 2018 when the victim started to exhibit health problems. As her situation worsened over the next few days, the parents rushed her to a hospital and found that the girl was pregnant. The victim’s father was a daily-wage worker. The family filed a case against the accused upon the statement of their daughter, and the police officials filed an FIR under the POCSO Act and relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

According to reports, the instances of rape took place between July and August 2018 at the New Central Public School in Patna, which is owned by Aravind. Abhishek would instruct the girl to go to the principal’s room, where “her copies are being corrected”. There was a bed in the room, upon which the prime accused raped the victim six times over two months, claimed the special public prosecutor Suresh Chandra Prasad.

The court had granted permission to abort the foetus and doctors conducted a DNA test on it. The sample collected by the investigation team in the case was found to be compatible with Aravind’s DNA through forensic examination, making it the most crucial evidence in the case.