A 75-year-old man teaching at a masjid was on Friday convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for repeatedly raping and making an obscene video of a 13-year-old girl he was tutoring. The case was heard by the special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act court.

The matter came to light in 2013 when a neighbour of the victim saw the clip on the phone of some boys in the vicinity and alerted the child’s parents. 

The prosecution said that in December 2012 the victim and her friends were on their way to school around 11.30 am for their exam. The teacher called them to the masjid on the pretext of giving them notes that would be useful in their exam.

The prosecution said that the girl’s friends ran away as the now-convicted teacher tried to lock the door, but the victim girl stayed behind as she wanted the promised notes.

The teacher raped the victim and threatened her not to speak about the incident to anyone. He continued this and on two other occasions and even took a video of the child. He threatened to kill the victim’s parents if she disclosed things to anyone.

The neighbour, one of the witnesses who deposed, told the court that in the afternoon of a day in January 2013, he saw a crowd on the road near the mosque. He further said that when he went closer he saw that a few boys were watching a clip on a mobile phone.

The witness said that when he went to take a look at the clip he saw that it had footage of a man who was performing obscene acts on a girl. The man said that he realised this girl was known to him. The man said that he called the girl’s father who broke down on seeing the video clip.

The witness said that the father went home and spoke to his daughter who admitted that it was her in the video. The child identified the accused and revealed that he had been sexually abusing her repeatedly. The neighbour called up the police and the teacher was arrested.

Among the witnesses to depose in the case were also the victim, her father, doctors and cops. Two other men who had been picked up in connection with the clip and booked under the Information Technology Act were acquitted by the court.

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