On Thursday, 26th September, Yupia Sessions Court in Arunachal Pradesh awarded death punishment to Yumken Bagra, the main offender for sexually assaulting 21 minor students of the Karo Residential School in Shi Yomi district. Bagra, who was the hostel warden at the institution, has received the most severe punishment for his involvement in the crimes.
Special judge Jaweplu Chai also sentenced former headmaster Singtung Yorpen and Hindi teacher Marbom Ngomdir to 20 years in prison for aiding and abetting an offense under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and failing to report it. Some of the students had reported the abuse to Yorpen, but he asked them to stay silent so that the school’s image would not be tarnished. This verdict is viewed as an important step toward justice for the victims, and the court’s decision has been highly welcomed by the public.
“We are happy with the verdict as the court heard our pleas for stringent and exemplary punishment,” said Oyam Bingepp who represented the 21 children before the POCSO special court. “This is the first death sentence in India given to an accused under the POCSO Act for aggravated penetrative sexual assault of victims in which the victims had not died,” Bingepp added.
Two other accused, Tajung Yorpen, another teacher at the same school, and Daniel Pertin, a friend of the hostel warden, were acquitted of all the charges. The case came to light in November 2022, when the father of one of the accused Bagra is of sexually assaulting, harassing, and attempting to rape his 12-year-old twin daughters at the residential school.
A special investigative team (SIT) that investigated the issue discovered that between 2014 and 2022, Bagra sexually molested at least 21 kids, including six boys aged 6 to 14, while serving as the school’s hostel warden.
The chargesheet, submitted in July last year, accused the warden of drugging students before attacking them and threatening them not to report the assault. According to the SIT, six of the Bagra victims tried suicide but were unsuccessful.
Bagra was convicted under IPC sections 328, 292, and 506 (administering poison/harmful substance with the intention of committing an offense, showing obscene material, and criminal intimidation), as well as POCSO Act sections 6, 10, and 12 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault and sexual harassment), respectively.
Ngomdir, a female teacher at the school, was also convicted under Section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and Sections 17 and 21 (1) of the POCSO Act for abetment of an offense and failure to report an offense. According to the prosecution, the victims told her about their plight, but she failed to report it to higher authorities, allowing the torture to continue.
Singtung Yorpen, the headmaster of the government residential school at the time of the assaults, was convicted under IPC sections 17 (abetting an offense) and 21 (2) (failure to report a crime).
