Deaf School Staff Convicted of Student Abuse

A special Pocso court has convicted and sentenced a former headmaster and a retired teacher of a school for the deaf to two years of rigorous imprisonment for the sexual assault of three students. The assaults occurred between 2013 and 2014. The court emphasized that children place immense trust in their teachers, and any betrayal of this trust results in lifelong trauma.

Crucial to the conviction were sign language experts who acted as official interpreters, translating the victims' gestures into spoken words. This allowed the court to understand their depositions despite the primary informant and her mother later turning hostile. The judge relied on the consistent testimony of another victim and an eyewitness student, noting that the accused misused their position of trust and exploited the students' physical disabilities.

The court fined each accused Rs 25,000, with Rs 15,000 to be given to each victim as compensation. The judge deemed this inadequate and forwarded the judgment to the District Legal Services Authority to consider additional compensation under the victim compensation scheme. The case dates back to July 2014, with investigations revealing a pattern of abuse between June 2013 and June 2014.