The Hindu : New Delhi News : Music teacher sentenced to one year in jail

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New Delhi

Music teacher sentenced to one year in jail

Staff Reporter

For outraging the modesty of a 10-year-old girl student

NEW DELHI: A music teacher at Delhi Music School, which is run by a trust in the New Delhi area, was on Saturday awarded one year’s imprisonment by a Delhi court for outraging the modesty of a 10-year-old Class V student in the school five years ago.

Sentencing piano teacher Dileep Solomon, Metropolitan Magistrate rejected his plea to let him off on probation.

The court agreed with Additional Public Prosecutor S. K. Dass that it would send out a wrong signal to society if the convict’s plea was allowed.

The trial court had relied on the testimony of the girl to convict the music teacher.

The incident had been reported and followed up extensively for a week by the newspapers at the time as it had created doubts in the minds of parents about the safety of their wards in the hands of teachers.

Long battle

The mother of the daughter also had to fight a long battle to get justice as an internal inquiry ordered by the music school had given a clean to the teacher.

She had later challenged the inquiry report in the Delhi High Court that had allowed her plea. The High Court had also ordered a fresh inquiry into the allegations against the teacher by a retired District Judge who had held him guilty.

Reputation

Metropolitan Magistrate Geetanjali Goel had earlier convicted him under Sections 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman) and 509 (making indecent gesture to insult a woman) under the Indian Penal Code.

The defence of the convict was that he had suffered a lot as he had lost his job as well as reputation.

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