AHMEDABAD: A special CBI court in Ahmedabad on Tuesday sentenced a 52-year-old teacher to life imprisonment “till his last breath” for raping a student and impregnating her, after eloping with her on the pretext of marriage.
This is the second time the accused, Dhaval Trivedi, has been awarded life sentence. A repeat offender, he was already incarcerated for life for a similar offence in the past – when he had eloped with and raped two minors – and was out on furlough when he committed the crime again. The court kept his factor in consideration while sentencing him.
“With deceit as his weapon, he spun a web of lies, concealing his true identity while feigning affection. Like a predator luring its prey, he led her astray, betraying the very essence of the teacher-student bond,” special judge D G Rana said while pronouncing the sentence.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 7 lakh on Trivedi and directed the authorities to keep its order in his jail records, so that it is taken into consideration whenever Trivedi seeks furlough or parole in future.
Trivedi was arrested for eloping with and raping two students from Padadhari in Rajkot district in 2014, and was already in jail when he was convicted and awarded life term for the offence in March 2018.
Granted furlough, he did not surrender back to Rajkot central jail at the end of the period. He instead assumed a new identity of Dharmendra Dave and started English-speaking classes in Chotila.
In Aug 2018, Trivedi trapped one of his students, and took her to various locations in India and Nepal. He identified himself as Satnam Singh, Mukhyar Singh and Surjit Singh at different places. He sexually exploited the victim on the promise of marriage and impregnated her. She delivered a baby boy at a hospital in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.
The victim revealed the details to CBI — which was probing her disappearance on Gujarat high court’s order —- after she finally managed to return home in June 2020. CBI nabbed Trivedi from Baddi in Himachal Pradesh, and he was put on trial for rape, abduction, cheating and impersonation.
The prosecution demanded a death sentence for Trivedi, but the court ordered him to remain in jail for the rest of his life without the benefit of remission.