Teacher held after boy alleges sexual assault

THE NAVI Mumbai police have arrested a teacher who takes tuition classes in Rabale for allegedly having unnatural sex forcibly with one of his male students during an overnight picnic. The accused, Deepak Shendge (39), was arrested by the Rabale police Wednesday and will be produced in a court Thursday.

An officer from the Rabale police station said the boy, a first-year college student, had been going to the classes in Airoli, Sector 3, since May this year. Assistant police inspector Santosh Patil said Shendge had been touching him inappropriately since then. However, the boy thought he might have been reading too much into it, said the police.

On Tuesday, Shendge took students from his classes for a picnic to Dapoli, and they stayed at the house of one of his students at night. He allegedly made other students sleep in one room, while he and the boy slept in another. “Once in the room, the accused forced himself on the boy,” Patil said. The boy was too scared then, but once he returned home, he informed his parents. The family members of the boy approached the Rabale police where a case of sexual assault and unnatural offences was registered against Shendge and he was arrested. Patil said they were checking if Shendge had done something similar to any other student in the past. According to the police, he is married and has a child.