GUWAHATI: A Pocso court docket in Arunachal Pradesh Thursday sentenced to dying a former hostel warden of a authorities residential college within the state for aggravated sexual assault on 21 youngsters on his watch – 13 women and eight boys within the age group 6-15 – between 2019 and 2022.
Ex-warden Yumken Bagra‘s co-convicts within the case, former headmaster Singtung Yorpen and Hindi instructor Marbom Ngomdir Tapir, have been handed 20-year jail phrases.Two different accused, Daniel Pertin and Tajung Yorpen, have been acquitted.
4 of the survivors had tried suicide after being focused by the warden. Yorpen and Tapir have been convicted and sentenced for failure to report or report a case beneath Pocso Act. The kids purportedly suffered sexual abuse in silence till a pair of sisters confided to their dad and mom in Nov 2022 about being assaulted by Bagra. An FIR was lodged at a police station in Shi-Yomi district, resulting in Bagra’s arrest.
When a district court docket accepted the ex-warden’s plea for bail in July final yr, Gauhati HC took suo motu cognisance and quashed the order. He has been in custody since. The opposite two convicts, Yorpen and Tapir, have been arrested after Thursday’s verdict. Whereas cancelling Bagra’s bail, HC cited particulars of the crime within the chargesheet to determine why it was essential to maintain him in custody until the completion of the trial.
“A perusal of the chargesheet, which accommodates transient references to the statements of the victims, displays that the accused warden compelled the kids staying as boarders within the hostel to observe pornographic motion pictures and repeatedly subjected them to sexual assault.”
“Medical experiences of most victims corroborates the truth that they have been sexually assaulted,” court docket mentioned. The Pocso court docket’s judgment will likely be despatched to Gauhati HC for affirmation.
