• Source:JND
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Noida News: A Noida fast-track court on Monday sentenced an assistant professor from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and fined him Rs 20,000 for raping a former student in 2019. At the time, the victim was 35 years old, while he was 45.

Vivek Vijay Vargia, who holds a PhD in statistics from IIT Powai, served as a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics at IIT Jodhpur from February 2009 to December 2024. He had previously taught the woman for a brief period in 2000 and later met her again in 2011, when she was hired on a contractual basis at the institute and began exploring better career opportunities.

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The rape case against Vargia was registered at a Noida police station on June 6, 2019, in which the woman told that he raped her when she visited him at the GAIL guesthouse in Noida’s Film City that day regarding a job opportunity, The Indian Express reported.

Vargia was arrested by the police the following day at Noida’s Sector 16 metro station, and a chargesheet was filed against him on September 25, 2019, the report added.

Additional Sessions Judge Priyanka Kumari, on November 27, found Vargia guilty of raping the woman, rejecting his argument regarding the six-hour delay in filing the FIR.

“In this case, testimony showed that the police arrived at the scene soon after the incident and that the delay in formally registering the FIR occurred at the police station, not due to the victim’s hesitation,” the order read.

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During the hearing, the court found the prosecution witnesses’ statements to be consistent and credible, noting that their testimony supported the account that the accused had lured the woman to a guesthouse under the pretext of a job offer, where the assault took place, the IE report added.

The court rejected the accused’s claim that the woman never visited the guesthouse, relying on the cumulative evidence to establish his presence and involvement beyond a reasonable doubt.

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