Qatar’s Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling faulting DPS-Modern Indian School and its employee for the death of a four-year-old girl left in a school bus in 2010, the Peninsula reports.

Although an earlier court sentencing had given DPS-MIS a 500,000 QAR fine for its negligence, the Appeals Court reduced that penalty to 50,000 QAR.

Sarah Gazdhar, a lower-level kindergarden student, was riding to school in a minivan provided by DPS-MIS on May 17, 2010, when she apparently fell asleep in the back seat.

The driver – not noticing her – drove home and left the van parked in the sun, which led to her eventual suffocation. Her body was discovered hours later, after her parents called the school to say she hadn’t returned home.

Motiullah Sakhi Badshah, the driver of the school vehicle, was also guilty of negligence and was sentenced to a year in jail (although that’s been suspended for the time being) and ordered to pay 200,000 QAR in blood money to the deceased girl’s family. 

According to the Peninsula, Sarah’s father Mohamed Talha Gazdhar is displeased with the verdict and had wanted more severe measures to be taken against the school. 

Credit: Handout photo of Sarah Gazdhar via Gulf News & Gulf Times