Govt teacher ‘molests’ school girls: Ferozepur admn forms probe panel

The panel is headed by the Ferozepur assistant commissioner (General), and includes the district programme officer and district education officer

A day after a government school teacher in Ferozepur’s Guru Har Sahai sub-division was arrested for molesting and sexually harassing at least 13 girl students, the district administration on Saturday constituted a three-member committee to investigate the incident.

The accused, Raj Kumar Chugh, was sent to 14-day judicial custody by a Ferozepur court on Saturday. (HT)

The panel, headed by the Ferozepur assistant commissioner (General), and including the district programme officer and district education officer, has been directed to submit its report within 72 hours, said deputy commissioner Deepshikha Sharma.

The accused, Raj Kumar Chugh, was sent to 14-day judicial custody by a local court.

Guru Har Sahai DSP Satnam Singh confirmed that the statements of the victims will be recorded on Monday, and the role of one male and six female staff members, who allegedly tried to suppress the matter, as claimed by victims in their complaint, was also under scrutiny.

Ferozepur senior superintendent of police (SSP) Bhupinder Singh Sidhu said Chugh was facing charges under Sections 74, 79 (outraging woman’s modesty) and 75 (sexual harassment) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with Section 8 (sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The matter came to light when one of the students dropped a handwritten complaint in the school’s suggestion box. Promptly acting on it, principal Karan Singh Dhaliwal constituted an internal committee of female teachers to carry out a preliminary inquiry. The report was forwarded to district education officer (DEO) Manila Arora, who escalated the matter to the directorate of public education (DPE), Chandigarh.

SSP Sidhu reiterated that all angles of the case were being probed thoroughly.