Bombay High Court denies bail to school bus driver for sexually assaulting a minor

Bombay High Court denies bail to school bus driver accused of sexually assaulting minor girl student in 2023.

In a significant ruling, the Bombay High Court refused to grant bail to a school bus driver who was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a minor girl student in 2023. The offence was “very serious, grave, and heinous”, the High Court said in its March 20 order that was made available on April 1.

Justice Madhav J. Jamdar observed that an eight-year-old girl had been subjected to sexual assault, allegedly by the school bus driver, whose duty was to safely transport students from school to their homes. Instead, he is accused of stopping the school bus, taking the victim to a nearby place, and sexually assaulting the child. Prima facie, this clearly shows his involvement in a “very serious, grave, and heinous offence”, the court noted.

The incident was spotted by a person who then protected the child from further assault by the accused. “Thus, on the touchstone of the parameters of granting bail, namely, nature and gravity of circumstances in which offence was committed and position and status of accused with reference to the victim and the witnesses, no case is made out for grant of bail on merits,” the court said.

The chargesheet filed in the case is under Section 354-A and 354-B of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 11 and 12 of the POCSO Act.  

“As the victim is a child of eight years, the sexual assault is aggravated sexual assault in terms of Section 9(m) of the POCSO Act, and the same is punishable under Section 10 of the said Act. Thus, although the charge-sheet is filed only under Sections 354-A, 354-B of IPC and under Sections 11 and 12 of the POCSO Act, the offences under Section 7, 8, 9(m) and 10 are also disclosed from the material produced alongwith the charge-sheet,” the order read.

The accused had sought bail, citing the fact that he has been in jail since March 2023 and has completed a third of the maximum sentence that can be imposed on him if convicted.

Advocate Tapan Thatte, appearing for the accused, said, “The applicant (accused) has completed two years imprisonment... In the case of the first-time offender, once he completes one-third of the maximum period of imprisonment, then such an undertrial prisoner who is a first-time offender has to be released on bond/bail in accordance with first proviso to Section 479 (1) of BNSS and in that case the Court has no jurisdiction to reject his bail application.”