Bhawanipatna: The bail plea of a school headmaster under T Rampur block in Kalahandi district was rejected for the third time Friday following his arrest in a rape case of minor girl students in the school, a report said.
The accused was identified as Balakrushna Mohapatra, headmaster of Sirmaska government Upgraded High School under T Rampur block in Kalahandi district. He has been posted in the school for the last 18 years since 2000 and was suspended after his arrest.
He was arrested after a 15-year old tribal girl, an inmate of the school hostel and a student of Class-IX, lodged a complaint of rape at T Rampur police station, December 17, 2018.
Police registered a case under various sections of IPC, POCSO, SC/ST and POA Act but failed to nab him as he was absconding after his name figured in the FIR. However, police continued raiding various places and finally nabbed him from Berhampur, December 21, 2018
He is also accused of luring gullible tribal and Dalit hostel girls on various pretexts and raping them inside the prayer hall where he has put up photographs of various deities. However, none dared to stand up against him for fear of backlash in public.
Earlier, Orissa High Court had rejected his bail plea. Frequent rejections of bail plea have dashed the hopes of the accused for an early release from the jail.
The additional district and sessions judge and special judge Rashmita Dalai rejected his bail plea for the second time after the survivor and her father appeared in the court and strongly opposed his bail. The additional district and sessions judge had earlier rejected his bail plea in February, 2019
They argued that granting bail to the accused at the trial stage might endanger their lives as the latter will try to influence the witnesses and force them to turn hostile. The special public prosecutor, Susant Kumar Sahu, also strongly opposed the bail plea of the accused.
PNN