Raipur / 7 teachers molest 2 students for 1yr, threaten to fail them if they complain

Seven teachers of a government school in Chhattisgarh’s Baloda Bazar district were arrested on Friday for allegedly molesting two girls for the last one year after threatening them to fail in examinations if they complained, officials said.

Police said the first incident took place in 2018, when one of the teachers took the girls for a picnic and molested one of them. After this incident, one of the accused teachers starting calling the other girl.

The other five teachers also started molesting the girls and when they tried to complain, they allegedly threatened them to fail in exams, police said.

Baloda Bazar’s superintendent of police (SP), Neethu Kamal, said all the teachers are from the same school, which is under Kasdol police station area.

They have been identified as Devendra Khunte, 38, Rameshwar Prasad Sahu, 44, Rupnarayan Sahu, 36, Mahesh Kumar Verma, 37, Dinesh Kumar Sahu, 38, Chadan Das Baghel, 39, and Lalram Bervansh.

“Dinesh Kumar Sahu is the vice-principal of the school,” Kamal said while speaking to HT.

“We have arrested the teachers on the complaint of the girls and two FIRs (first information reports) were registered against the teachers,” she said.

She said the FIR was registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

“On Thursday, the parents of both the victims raised the molestation issue in front of the principal and school management committee and later called the police. Police swung into action and registered a case and then arrested the teachers,” the SP added.