POCSO court grants bail to Surat teacher arrested for kidnapping 13-year-old boy
The court laid down several bail conditions on the accused including that she should not contact the teenage boy and “stay at least 1,000 meters away from his house”
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Six days after they went missing from their respective homes, police arrested the teacher and rescued the student after intercepting them in a bus at Shamlaji on Gujarat-Rajasthan border on April 30. (Representative image)Almost a month after she was arrested for allegedly kidnapping her 13-year-old student, a POCSO court in Surat granted bail to a 23-year-old teacher, stating that there was no possibility of tampering with evidence or the probe being hampered. The court, though, laid down several bail conditions on the accused including that she should not contact the teenage boy and “stay at least 1,000 meters away from his house”.
While granting the bail on Monday afternoon, Surat district Special POCSO court judge R R Bhatt observed, “The investigation against the accused is on the verge of completion and all the necessary evidence has been collected by police. No recovery or discovery is pending on the applicant/accused. If the accused is set out on bail, there is no possibility of tampering with evidence, and even the investigations will not be hampered. Seeing the gravity of the crime and the involvement of the accused, and as per the parameters of bail, the accused’s bail is granted.”
The bail conditions laid down by the court were, “The accused should not contact the victim, the teenage boy. The accused should stay at least 1,000 meters away from the residence of the teenage boy till the trial ends. The accused should submit their permanent address and mobile phone number within three days of getting out on bail. The accused should not pressurise the witnesses and tamper with evidence. The accused should not leave the country and should appear in the regular court for the case proceedings. If the accused owns a passport, she has to submit it to the court in seven days.”
The court made the order based on the bail application filed by defence lawyer Wajid Shaikh on May 19.
Challenging the bail application, Additional Public Prosecutor U A Patil said the teenage boy is under “mental tension” due to the incident. If the bail of the accused teacher is accepted, she will again contact him, and his future would be affected, Patil added.
On the other hand, defence lawyer Shaikh told the court that the accused is still under mental trauma, adding her condition is not good. He further pointed out that she had undergone MTP (Medical Termination of Pregnancy) earlier this month and required psychological treatment.
Shaikh told The Indian Express, “We are very much satisfied with the court order.”
Patil said, “We will study the bail order and later decide on the further course of action.”
Six days after they went missing from their respective homes, police arrested the teacher and rescued the student after intercepting them in a bus at Shamlaji on Gujarat-Rajasthan border on April 30.
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