Guwahati: In a landmark judgement a special court in Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday pronounced the death sentence to a hostel warden convicted for sexual assault of 21 minor students at a government-run residential school in between 2014 to 2022.
The case came to light in November 2022 first when a parent of a twin girl child lodged a complaint at the Monigong police station in Shi Yomi district accusing hostel warden of rape.
The advocate Nkita Danggen who was appointed legal aid council but decided to fight for the case as pro-bono advocate told this newspaper that initially the response of the authorities was luke-warm and even accused managed to get bail from the district session court but intervention of the Gauhati High Court that took suo moto cognisance and ordered setting up of SIT to probe the case, resulted in landmark judgement into the case.
The Special judge Jaweplu Chai, who announced the death sentence for warden Yumken Bagra, also sentenced former headmaster Singtung Yorpen and Hindi teacher Marbom Ngomdir to 20 years for abetment of the offence under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and failing to report it.
After the first case was filed as many as 21 cases of sexual abuse came to light. The accused used to threaten the children to keep quiet so that the reputation of the school is not sullied was giving some drugs to the children that came to light in SIT investigation.
Advocate Nikita Danggen who appeared for the 21-children as legal aid council appointed by the Gauhati High court said, “We are happy with the verdict as the court heard our pleas for stringent and exemplary punishment.
Informing that incident had created massive public uprise in the state, she said, “This is the first death sentence in India given to an accused under Pocso Act for aggravated penetrative sexual assault of victims in which the victims had not died.”
The court convicted the three under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Pocso Act.
Two other accused, Tajung Yorpen, another teacher in the same school, and Daniel Pertin, an acquaintance of the hostel warden, were acquitted.
Yorpen, who was also accused of sexually assaulting one student, was acquitted after the victim turned hostile in court while Pertin, who was accused of giving shelter to the hostel warden prior to his arrest, was acquitted due to lack of evidence.
A special investigation team (SIT) which probed the case found that Bagra sexually assaulted at least 21 minors, including six boys aged 6-14 years, between 2014 and 2022 during his tenure as hostel warden at the school.
The chargesheet, filed in July last year, accused the warden of drugging students before assaulting them and also threatening them against reporting the assault. The SIT said six of Bagra’s victims had unsuccessfully attempted to die by suicide.
Bagra has been convicted under sections 328, 292 and 506 (administering poison/harmful substance with the intention of committing an offence, showing obscene material and criminal intimidation) of the IPC and sections 6,10 and 12 of Pocso Act that pertain to aggravated penetrative sexual assault and sexual harassment.
Ngomdir, who was a female teacher in the school, has been convicted under Section 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC and sections 17 and 21 (1) of POCSO Act for abetment of offence and failing to report an offence. According to the prosecution, the victims had narrated their ordeal to her, but she didn’t report it to higher authorities, which allowed the abuse to continue.
Yorpen, who was the headmaster of the government residential school at the time the assaults took place, has been convicted under sections 17 (for abetment of an offence) and 21 (2) (for failing to report an offence) of the IPC.
