Headmistress in rape case released on bail
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 22 January 2013 23:58 IST
Headmistress Sharlet Furtado was finally granted conditional bail and was released by the Children’s Court today.
While Judge Anuja Prabhudesai granted her conditional bail, Furtado’s lawyer Anacleto Viegas alleged that not his client Furtado but the schools management was actually responsible for the negligence in the case of a rape on a seven-year old student.
“Furtado has been made a scapegoat in the case”, argued Adv Viegas.
Furtado has been told to report to the police station for five days and has been restrained from leaving the state without permission.
After the headmistress was suspended and then arrested by police following public protests, MPT chairman M P Pandiyan said the school management would not try her to get her bailed out.
“It is her personal matter”, he said.
Furtado however told the court that the police have arrested her to divert public attention from its failure to arrest the rapist.
The seven-year old girl studying in Std II was raped in a bathroom by a boy, who managed to skip in the school premises in spite of tight security at the gates.
Meanwhile, the school management has also suspended the student’s class teacher and a clerk for negligence in handling the case.
