Odisha teacher gets 20-year jail term for sexual assault

BALANGIR: In a significant judgement, the POCSO court of Balangir on Friday sentenced a school teacher to 20 years of imprisonment for sexually assaulting girl students. POCSO judge Gopabandhu Gadnaik also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on convict Biswanath Buddhia. He was working at a school in Mursing village under Deogaon block. Buddhia will have to serve an additional jail term of two years if he fails to pay the fine, special public prosecutor of Priya Bohidar said.

Buddhia used to call senior girl students to his office cabin and sexually assault them. He also threatened them to not disclose the matter to anyone. The incident, however, came to light after one of the victims shared the issue with her parents. On August 22, 2022, villagers gheraoed the school demanding action against Buddhia. While the district education officer placed him under suspension, he was later arrested by Deogaon police.

Deogaon IIC Tarabati Pradhan who was the investigating officer of the case expressed his happiness over the court’s verdict. The judgement will help create awareness and prevent such incidents from happening in the future, the officer added.