Jind school sexual abuse case: 136 girl students refuse to appear before probe panel
The parents fear the girls will not be able to succeed professionally and have trouble finding matches for weddings, officials said
At least 136girls who levelled charges of sexual harassment against the then school principal in Jind, Haryana, have now refused to appear before a committee carrying out detailed probe amid fears of social ostracization, officials familiar with the matter said.
Only the six girls, who recorded their statement before a duty magistrate under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) last year, have stuck to the stand, the officials said.
“We carried out a detailed special investigation report and visited the houses of 142 girls, who levelled allegations against the principal,” Narender Atri, chairman of the child welfare committee in Jind, said. Butmost of them refused to participate, and only the six complainants remained firm on their stand.
“Officials of the child welfare committee, and women and child development department carried out a detailed probe to prepare a social investigation report. Majority of the victims and their parents decided not to participate in the case,” the senior officials said.
The sexual assault case came to light on August 31, after students of the school wrote a letter addressed to President Droupadi Murmu, Haryana governor and the National Commission for Women accusing the then principal of a school in Uchana area of Jind district of sexually harassing them during his stint at the government school between 2017 and 2023.
The Haryana secondary education department subsequently suspended the principal on October 27.
Three days later, the principal was booked under sections 354-A (sexual harassment), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code and under the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act..
He was arrested on November 4.“One of the victims was vocal about the principal’s actions, but her parents asked her to distance herself from the case,” a senior official said.The parents fear the girls will not be able to succeed professionally and have trouble finding matches for weddings, officials said. An official aware of the matter said that the families of the girls who refused to come forward need counselling and support to pursue the matter.
“As the girls hail from rural areas, their parents still consider this matter as a stigma, and do not want to come forward,” the official added.
The bail plea of the accused teacher was rejected by the Jind court last week.
The lawyers of the Jind district had unanimously decided not to fight his case and a lawyer from outside Jind appeared for him.
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