Hundreds of angry parents on Tuesday, September 24, laid siege to Guru Nanak Khalsa School, a government-aided Hindi medium school, in Rourkela, Odisha, in protest against alleged molestation of a Class IX girl student by a teacher.
They gathered inside and outside the school raising slogans against the management of the school, located along the Gurudwara Road under Plant Site police limits, stated a report by The New Indian Express.
Zone III Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Nirmal Mohapatra and Plant Site IIC JN Khandei rushed to the spot and pacified the crowd with assurance of firm and prompt action.
The accused Physical Education Teacher (PET) was later arrested from Garpoash in Sambalpur district and booked under sections 74 and 75 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and section 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, DSP Mohapatra said.
As per the complaint, during the hour recess on Saturday, Sepetmeber 21, the errant teacher Jasbir Singh (55) called the victim to the sports room and allegedly kissed her before she escaped to safety, the DSP said. The accused has confessed to the crime, police claimed.
School headmaster Anil Prajapat said the incident came to the notice of the school management the same evening. The school administration on Monday, September 23, issued a show cause notice and disengaged Singh in his absence.
After the Saturday incident, the teacher had not come to the school but an internal committee had been constituted for inquiry, the Prajapat said.
Sources said after the traumatised victim refused to go to school, her parents insisted on knowing the reason and she narrated her ordeal. They immediately informed the other parents that led to the protest on Tuesday. Some parents raised slogans like 'Hamari Beti Desh Ki Beti' (our daughter's country's daughter).
The incident came close on the heels of the shocking gang-rape of two adolescent girls aged 14 and 15 years by three miscreants at a secluded spot of the nearby Bisra Chowk on Saturday evening.