Woman teacher ’molested’ child in Bengaluru school

 

Bengaluru: Nov 23, 2014: The parents of a five-year-old girl lodged a complaint with RT Nagar police on Friday alleging that a woman teacher sexually assaulted the girl at Navodaya Vidyaniketan School, located on Dinnur Main Road.

 

Police said the teacher, aged around 30 years, had been detained and booked under Pocso Act. The incident came to light after the girl returned home with a bleeding nose on Friday evening.

 

When asked by her mother, the girl replied that she was beaten by her teacher on her nose and private parts. The parents immediately took her to a hospital for treatment and later lodged a complaint alleging that their daughter was sexually abused by a “madam.”

 

“The father of the victim has named the suspect as ‘madam’ in his complaint. He has not mentioned the name of the suspect. The school building is equipped with CCTV cameras and we will examine the footage,” a senior police officer said.

 

He added that the girl had been subjected to medical examination and no conclusions could be arrived at before receiving the report. He said the victim was in a state of shock and she was yet to be questioned. Another senior officer, who spoke to Deccan Herald on condition of anonymity denied the reports that the teacher had been detained.

 

As the news broke out, hundreds of parents gathered near the school and staged a protest demanding the arrest of the suspect. Police barricaded the area and brought the situation under control.

 

BEO visits school

The officials of the Education department who visited the school on Saturday said it was not an incident of sexual abuse, but a general complaint about harassment of the student.

 

“We visited the school after watching the news report. It is a general complaint. We do not have a copy of FIR yet. When we visited the school, police had taken the teacher for inquiry,” said Block Education Officer (BEO) South Zone III, V Ramesha.

 

The principal of the school said that they too had lodged a complaint against the parents while the management members claimed that the complaint had been submitted to the Education department. However, the BEO told Deccan Herald they had not received any complaint from the school.

 

The BEO said that their phone calls to the parents were not answered. He added that the school was closed on Saturday as students had gone on an excursion. A management member alleged that the telephone number mentioned in the police complaint was different from the one mentioned in the school records.The school with classes 1 to 10 has 588 students.

 

Another complaint

Parents of a student studying in a play home at Hulimavu lodged a complaint against the school on Saturday alleging misbehaviour on part of the management. It is said that their daughter used to come home everyday with mosquito bites and they had urged the play home to take precautionary measures.

 

They alleged that the management invited the parents for a meeting and abused them verbally. A complaint has been registered.