Principal handed 105 years in jail for sexual abuse of students

PESHAWAR: A local court on Tuesday awarded three times life imprisonment to a private school owner and principal on charges of committing rape and unnatural offence, detaining married women with criminal intent and blackmailing students to force them to have illicit relations with him.

District and Sessions Judge Peshawar Muhammad Younas awarded a total of 105 years imprisonment to Attaullah Marwat, principal of the private school. However, the sentence was declared as concurrent and the convict would spend life imprisonment of 25 years in the prison.

The punishment awarded by the court to the principal included life imprisonment and fine of Rs100,000 under Section 354-A (stripping woman of her clothes), life imprisonment and fine of Rs200,000 under Section 365-B (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel for marriage), life imprisonment and fine of Rs300,000 under Section 377 (unnatural offences with man and woman), 20 years imprisonment and fine of Rs200,000 under Section 376 (punishment for rape), two years imprisonment under Section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), four years under Section 497 (adultery), two years under Section 498 (enticing or taking away or detaining with criminal intent a married woman) and two years under Section 509 (sexual harassment).

Special Public Prosecutor Syed Nazir appeared on behalf of the state in the case. The complainant in the case was Abdul Wali Khan, the then SHO of Hayatabad Police Station in Peshawar, who raided the school premises and took action on the complaint of Mirwas Khan, father of Mir Zakeem, an ex-student of the school.

In the 24-page judgement, the court stated that the accused had confessed to his crimes through his confessional statement before the judicial magistrate. It said the prosecution produced all the recoveries made from the premises of the school that was used for commission of the offences.

"Such acts of the accused certainly fall within the domain of the Fasad Fil Arz as the society especially the females/women are not safe from the clutches of the accused, which the accused has himself admitted by way of voluntary and true confession in the court of magistrate. Needless to mention that the prosecution has produced a lot of circumstantial evidence including medical against the accused which proved case against him," the judgement said.

The accused was arrested after the Hayatabad Police Station registered a case against him on July 14, 2017 on the complaint of a boy student, who had accused him of sexually exploiting schoolchildren, including girls, and filming such acts through secret cameras installed at the school campus.

One of the charges against the accused was that he had forced, persuaded, coerced and enticed girl students aged below 18 years to engage in sexual acts and expose their bodies and was involved in explicit sexual conduct and abuse of minor schoolgirls.

The accused was also charged with forcing, coercing and persuading girl students of his school to indulge in sexual acts and capturing the action on his mobile phones, USBs and secret cameras installed in different parts of the school. The accused had allegedly 'on multiple occasions and habitually' enticed and compelled multiple women of different ages to have illicit relations with him inside the school. He was also charged with sexually assaulting many women after obtaining their consent through death threats.

Following his arrest last year, the accused recorded his confessional statement with a judicial magistrate on July 19, 2017, wherein he admitted that he used to bring women from outside to the school for the purpose of committing adultery. He said it was his hobby to make videos of the sexual acts. He also admitted that 26 such videos that he made were stored in his personal computer.

The issue had surfaced after a school student told the police that the accused was involved in sexual exploitation of students and teachers. He had alleged that the accused had sexually exploited students, teachers and some outside women, but nobody had the courage to disclose or report the matter. The complainant had alleged the principal Attaullah Marwat also showed him several objectionable videos that he had recorded secretly through cameras and also invited him to get involved in such acts.

In the FIR, the police said that when they raided the school, the accused tried to conceal his two cellphones, which allegedly had several objectionable videos involving schoolboys. It added the accused used three rooms of his school for carrying out his objectionable activities.

The police recovered memory cards and USBs and seized several videos in which the accused was sexually exploiting students, including girls, in different parts of his private school.