MUMBAI: Twelve workers linked to the Bhartiya Vidyarthi Sena, the erstwhile student wing of the undivided Shiv Sena, were sentenced to six months’ rigorous imprisonment by a sessions court for assaulting a municipal school teacher and vandalising a school office in Mulund in 2010, with the court observing that smearing black ink on a teacher was “not an excusable event”.
Additional Sessions Judge K M Jaisingani on Monday convicted the accused of rioting, house-trespass and assaulting public servants while discharging their official duties. However, they were acquitted of charges of wrongful confinement and criminal intimidation.
The case relates to an incident on August 20, 2010, at Mulund Municipal Corporation Secondary School. The accused, led by Vijay Pandhari Gawai, allegedly entered the in-charge headmaster’s cabin and confronted teacher Prakash Bapu Salgar after accusing him of beating a Class 9 student.
The prosecution said the group abused Salgar, hit his right hand with a stick and smeared black ink over his face and body. When the headmaster intervened, he was pushed aside. The group then allegedly vandalised the office, damaging a window and furniture.
While sentencing the accused, the court said the act of “throwing/smearing black coloured ink” on the teacher’s face could not be excused. It observed that teachers “shape the future of the students and committing such offence against them when they were imparting education to the students is a very serious offence.”
The court further said that taking a lenient view of the offence “would send the wrong message in society”.
The 12 convicts were also fined ₹500 each in addition to the six-month jail sentence.
