Coach who raped girl of his own team gets 20 years in jail

AJMER: A Pocso court here on Wednesday awarded 20 years' jail term to the then coach of Himachal Pradesh's Under-16 football team for raping a player of his own team in August 2019, when the squad was in Ajmer to play a tournament.

The court also slapped a penalty of Rs 60,000 on the convict.

The rape survivor had not told anyone about the crime, until 2021 when at her boarding school in Kasauli, a webinar attended by judges was held on crimes against minors. Special prosecutor Rupendra Parihar said that the girl realized during the webinar that she should report the incident in order to have the accused punished. She first told her hostel warden and then filed a report at Kasauli police station in Himachal Pradesh.

As the crime had taken place in Ajmer, the Himachal Pradesh police sent the case to the Ajmer SP for taking action. The Adarsh Nagar station police registered a case and recorded the statement of the girl. She said she had come to Ajmer with her team in August 2019 and they stayed at a place in Adarsh Nagar. After a match, the coach called her to his room and there he raped her twice. He threatened her to not tell about it to anyone, according to the FIR lodged by the girl.

Parihar said that the Adarsh Nagar police arrested the coach in June 2021 and a chargesheet in the case was filed in July next year. He said that 19 witnesses and 41 documents were produced in court during the trial.

"The court observed in its judgment that this was an example of the benefits of the awareness programmes run by the judicial department, police and other organizations on crimes against children," added Parihar.

(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)