Schoolteacher booked for molesting 8-year-old girl

Ludhiana: More than three weeks after a panchayat raised the issue of molestation of an 8-year-old student at a government school in a village, the police on Friday lodged an FIR against a schoolteacher for the alleged crime.
The accused, originally from Faridkot, was a teacher in a primary school and had allegedly been harassing the girl for quite some time.

The matter had come to light on September 10 when the girl studying in Class IV had refused to go to her school. When asked, she told her mother about the teacher.
The child’s mother said she had noticed behaviour changes in her as she had started to remain quiet and unwilling to going to school. She had asked her many times, but to no avail. On September 10, she was reluctant to go to school. When she counselled her, the girl claimed that a schoolteacher had been harassing her for the past many days. The girl alleged that the accused used to touch her inappropriately and threaten to beat her if she talked about it.
The woman informed her husband, who further informed the village panchayat.
On September 13, the members of panchayat reached the school and thrashed the teacher. The teacher had also confessed about his crime following which the police were called and the teacher was handed over to the cops. However, the police had not lodged an FIR then.
Sub-inspector Kulbir Singh said initially the parents of the minor girl had refused to record their statements against the teacher. Now, the police have received a complaint from the education department on the basis of which an FIR under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act has been registered. The accused is yet to be arrested.