Arunachal: School Headmaster Gets Life Term for Raping Class VII student in 2018
Special POCSO Court in Yupia convicts Itanagar government school headmaster Biri Tapa for aggravated sexual assault on a 15-year-old student and sentences him to life imprisonment.
YUPIA- A Special POCSO Court in Yupia has convicted government school headmaster Biri Tapa for raping a Class VII student in 2018 and sentenced him to life imprisonment under Section 376(2)(f) of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 6 of the POCSO Act. The court held that the case involved aggravated penetrative sexual assault on a minor who was 15 years and one month old at the time of the offence.
Special Judge (POCSO) Dr Hirendra Kashyap ruled that the prosecution had proved the charges beyond reasonable doubt, noting that Tapa was then headmaster of a Government Middle School in Itanagar and in a position of trust over the child. The court observed that the offence represented a serious breach of the duty of care owed by a teacher to a student.
The prosecution case began after an FIR was lodged on November 18, 2018, following circulation of a video on social media in which the victim disclosed the assault. According to the prosecution led by Special Public Prosecutor (POCSO) Kagam Bagra, the accused took the victim from the school gate on June 6, 2018, to a guest house at Bank Tinali, where he raped her and threatened her not to reveal the incident.
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Police seized hotel records showing that a room had been booked in the name of the accused from 2 pm to 5:30 pm on the same day as the alleged assault. The victim later identified the hotel before the investigating officer, while her birth certificate, collected during investigation, confirmed that she was below 16 years of age at the time.
The court rejected the defence claim that the case was fabricated by School Management Committee members and the assertion that the hotel room was used merely for examination preparation. It also took note that a page from the teachers’ attendance register for June 2018 was missing, even though the register was under the custody of the accused, treating this as a circumstance adverse to the defence.
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Invoking the statutory presumption under Section 29 of the POCSO Act, the court held that the accused had failed to rebut the prosecution evidence. In its reasoning, the court emphasised that sexual abuse by a school headmaster amounts to a grave betrayal of trust and warrants stringent punishment to deter similar offences.
At the sentencing hearing on November 13, the court found that Tapa was not entitled to leniency and imposed life imprisonment along with a fine of ₹20,000. It further directed the District Legal Services Authority, Papum Pare, to grant compensation to the survivor under the Arunachal Pradesh Victim Compensation Scheme in recognition of the trauma suffered.
The convict has been informed of his right to appeal the judgment and sentence before the Gauhati High Court, leaving open the possibility of further judicial scrutiny of the case.
