Sacked government schoolteacher Uma Khurana, arrested after a television sting claimed she was pushing students into prostitution, walked free today after a court granted her bail saying she was “more of a victim than an offender”.
Delhi High Court, which also had taken cognisance of reports that the sting was fake, asked the government why she was in jail if the evidence was “concocted” and to review its decision to sack her.
The high court asked the education department to file a report on September 12, the next date of hearing.
Ten days after she was arrested, 41-year-old Khurana came out of Tihar jail around 8.15pm. Her bail application came up in the afternoon before additional chief metropolitan magistrate Alok Agarwal, who set the mathematics teacher free on a bond of Rs 5,000.
Khurana was arrested on August 31 under the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act, a day after the expose was aired by a channel.
In the high court, a division bench headed by Chief Justice M.K. Sharma asked the prosecution searching questions. If there is no evidence against her and the evidence “is found to be concocted”, then why should she be kept behind bars, the bench asked.
Public prosecutor Mukta Gupta, however, told the court it could not be said that the teacher was entirely innocent and “there was much more than what has been projected”.
“It is much more or something else,” the court rasped, and asked the police to show whether there was any substantial evidence against her.
The government said it was open to reviewing its decision to dismiss Khurana if she is given a clean chit by the police.
