Kolkata: Drunken helper molests girls on schoolbus

KOLKATA: Angry parents, whose wards study in a reputable English-medium school in the Barrackpore Cantonment Board area, staged an agitation in front of the Barrackpore police station on Thursday afternoon. They demanded immediate arrest of the schoolbus helper who had allegedly molested and abused girl students in an inebriated state on Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, the parents held a demonstration in front of the school, seeking an immediate action from them. Later in the day, the school authorities lodged an FIR with Barrackpore police station against the accused helper Amar Rajak and the bus driver Md Ekbal who had allowed the drunken man to work on the school bus. No one has been arrested yet.
According to the complaint, the incident took place around 5pm on Wednesday while the students were on their way back home in the schoolbus as usual after the school was over.
“The accused, a resident of Barrackpore’s Ordhali Bazar, who had been a conductor-cum-helper for the schoolbus for over a couple of years, was in an inebriated state. As the bus started moving, he misbehaved with the girls. When they protested, the helper abused and touched them inappropriately. When the boys on board the bus tried to prevent him from harassing the girls, he threatened them with dire consequences.
The frightened girls asked the driver to stop the bus but the helper tried to resist them. Finally, they managed to get off and inform their parents and the school authorities,” said the vice-principal of the school in the complaint.
“We received the complaint on Thursday evening and a case was registered against the accused. A search is on to nab them,” said a senior police official of the Barrackpore commissionerate.