Rourkela: A fast-track court in Rourkela sentenced the principal of a private school to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment after convicting him in the rape of a former girl student back in 2019, a report said Saturday.
The convict was identified as Bibhuti Gupta, who was the principal-cum-owner of Gyanodaya Vidyalaya under Bandhamunda police limits in Rourkela. The court also directed Gupta to pay Rs5 lakh to the survivor, Special Public Prosecutor Kailash Pradhan said. Apart from the above sentence, the court also slapped a two-year jail term and cash fine of Rs50,000 on Gupta under Section 506 IPC.
On failure to pay the fine amount, the convict has to undergo an additional two years and six months of imprisonment, the court observed while pronouncing the order.
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The court passed the order after examining statements of 25 witnesses, 38 documentary and circumstantial evidences in the case, Pradhan added.
According to the case diary, Gupta had summoned the survivor, a former female student of the school, for a discussion over waiver of school fees of her brother. Despite protests by the survivor, Gupta raped her. The incident pushed the survivor into depression. Later, she mustered courage and lodged a written complaint at Bandhamunda police station in 2020. Police then registered a case and arrested Gupta. The case was first taken up for hearing in the court of Additional District Judge-1 in Rourkela before being transferred to the fast-track court.
PNN
