Cuttack, April 11: Orissa High Court today awarded Rs 4 lakh compensation to the father of a 12-year-old girl, who was raped and murdered by her school teacher, over two years ago.

Shibani, a student of Class VII at the Government Project U.P. School, Nimina in Ganjam district was found dead inside the toilet of the school with bleeding injuries in her private parts at 11.30am on September 30, 2008.

Biranchi Narayan Sahu, her father had sought Rs 10 lakh compensation on the ground that her daughter died due to the criminal act on the school premises and the authorities had failed to ensure her safety.

The petition had followed conviction of the teacher by the trial court in July 2010.

“Acting on the petition the two-judge bench of Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice B.N. Mohapatra directed the Orissa government to pay Rs 4 lakh to the father as compensation for his daughter’s death,” petitioner counsel Prabir Das said. “While issuing the direction, the bench observed that it was a shocking case and said the girl’s death was an irreparable loss to the family,” Das said.

“Can anybody compensate the loss, the bench further observed,” he said.

The victims girl’s father moved the high court after petitions, claiming Rs 10 lakh compensation, to the chief minister, the chief secretary, commissioner-cum-secretary of the school and mass education department and secretary of the women and child development department had evoked no action.

Case records indicated that Polsara police station had registered a case for rape and murder against the accused teacher.

Finding prima facie evidence after autopsy and medical examination of the accused, police had arrested Santha Charan Pattanaik on October 3, 2008 and chargesheet in the case was filed in the court of judicial magistrate first class, Kodala. The case was later committed to sessions trial.

On July 27, 2010, the court of the sessions judge, Ganjam-Gajapati in Berhampur convicted Santha Charan Pattanaik and sentenced him to undergo concurrently life imprisonment and seven years rigorous imprisonment for murder and rape, respectively.