Ina case of dalit harassment a former vice principal of a school, sentenced to three years in jail for harassing a scheduled caste employee, has been granted interim bail by a court here to allow him to file an appeal against his conviction before the Delhi High court.
Additional Sessions Judge T R Naval, while granting bail for 30 days to S C Jain, former vice principal of a private school in East Delhi, also suspended his sentence, saying if he is unable to get regular bail from the high court by August 14, then he will have to surrender before the trial court.
“Keeping in view that accused has been on bail during the trial and he has only been awarded sentence up to three years, therefore application is allowed”.
“Sentence is suspended and convict Jain is released on interim bail for a period of 30 days on furnishing of personal bond for a sum of Rs 25,000 with one surety of like amount,” the court said.
The court had convicted Jain after holding him guilty of committing an “offence of atrocity” and forcing a staffer, employed as a waterman, to work as a sweeper as he belonged to the dalit community.
The court had given its verdict on a complaint filed by Uttar Pradesh native Surat Singh, who had alleged that Jain had restrained him from doing his job as a waterman and asked him to do cleaning work as he belonged to Jatav a dalit community.
Seeking suspension of Jain’s jail term and release on interim bail to afford an opportunity to file an appeal before the high court, his counsel had submitted before the court that the convict has deposited the entire fine amount of Rs 51,000.
In its order, the court had acquitted three other school staffers–Baru Singh, R P Sharma and Kaniya Lal Singhal—on the ground that the prosecution and the complainant had failed to prove their case against them.
The prosecution had said that the very first day when Singh joined the school in December 2007, the then vice principal had asked him about his caste and after coming to know that he belonged to the scheduled caste community, he asked him not to work as a waterman and instead carry out the job of sweeper and cleaner.
