Ludhiana: Teacher molests 13-year-old visually impaired girl, booked

LUDHIANA: The police have booked a physical education teacher for allegedly molesting a 13-year-old visually impaired girl.
In her complaint, a student of class VIII alleged that the teacher had touched her inappropriately and harassed her.
The police on Monday registered a case against the teacher, 47, under Sections 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the IPC and Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.
The school has suspended the teacher.
It was the daughter of the school principal, who is also a part of the school management, who had her doubt on the teacher as she noticed that a bench of a student was placed near the teacher’s chair. Though she shifted the bench on the first day, she checked CCTV cameras when the bench was back to its position the next day.
There she found out that the teacher had been molesting the girl.
The girl’s father said on April 24, he received a call from the school management where it asked him to come to the school. Afterwards, he was told that the teacher had allegedly molested his daughter.
He said, “There are five students in my daughter’s class. On April 24, daughter of the school principal, who was taking the round, noticed that one bench of a student has been positioned near the teacher’s chair. When she further scanned the CCTV cameras installed in the classroom, she saw the teacher touching my daughter inappropriately. Following this, they immediately called me.”
“I was so shocked to know this and could not understand what to do. The teacher was also there in the school when I reached there. However, he escaped when everyone gathered at the office of the school principal. For a few days, we could not take a decision on whether to lodge a complaint or not. Finally, we approached the police on Monday,” the girl’s father said.
ASI Ajeet Singh, investigating officer, said, “Since that day, the accused teacher has not gone home. The police are conducting raids to arrest him. The school should have informed the police in time. The school has suspended teacher, but did not lodge a complaint. Meanwhile, the accused got time to flee.”
On asked about action against the school for not reporting the incident to the police, assistant commissioner of police (West) Sameer Verma said, “We are certainly verifying the role of the school. If found negligent, action would be taken against the school authorities.”