Govt school teacher arrested for sexually assaulting students in Barnala
Police say case registered after district child protection unit visits school and met students, who alleged their teacher behaved inappropriately with them.
A 51-year-old teacher at a government school in Barnala has been arrested for sexually assaulting girl students, senior superintendent of police Sarfaraz Alam said on Friday.
The action comes after social activist Parvinder Singh Kittna sent a written complaint to Patiala Range deputy inspector general of police (DIG) Kuldeep Singh Chahal and the Barnala SSP, alleging police inaction in the matter.
On Thursday, deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Satvir Singh said the district child protection officer Gurjeet Kaur visited the school and met the students.
When contacted, she said that the accused belongs to Barnala and has grown-up children settled abroad. She said he had joined the school on deputation last month.
Seven girl students, aged between 10 and 12 years, told Gurjeet Kaur that the teacher had touched them inappropriately.
Following this, a case was registered under Section 76 (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Section 8 (sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, and Section 75 (cruelty to a child) of the Juvenile Justice Act at the Barnala city police station.
After Kittna, a Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar-based activist, posted the matter on social media on December 8, the Barnala DSP put out a video the next day, saying action would be taken against the accused teacher.
Kittna said that he got to know about the matter from social media after a resident of Barnala tagged him.
