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Mohali: Teacher held for sexually harassing Class 5 girls sent to one-day remand
Police had arrested the 35-year-old teacher from the school premises on Wednesday after being alerted by the parents and school management
A day after a sports teacher at a private school was arrested for allegedly showing lewd videos to five Class 5 female students, all aged less than 10, and sexually harassing them, a local court on Thursday sent him to one-day police custody.
Police had arrested the 35-year-old teacher from the school premises on Wednesday after being alerted by the parents and school management. The only male teacher in the school, the accused had taken up the job in April. His services were terminated after the incident came to the fore.
Police have seized his mobile phone, which he used to show the obscene videos to the children, and will send it for forensic analysis.
On Thursday, the children returned to school as per routine and were provided counselling. “We are keeping a close watch on the children. They are doing fine and followed their normal routine in the school,” the school principal said.
Confiding in their school principal and parents after school hours on Tuesday, the children had complained that when they went to the room of the teacher, located in the school basement, he showed them lewd videos on his mobile phone. Parents also accused the teacher of sexual harassment.
The school principal claimed that the children came to her with a complaint against the sports teacher on Tuesday afternoon even before telling their parents, following which she sacked the teacher and coordinated with the parents and the police.
After receiving written complaints from the parents of the children, police took the teacher in custody.
The accused was booked under Sections 10 (aggravated sexual assault ) and 12 (sexual harassment) of the POCSO Act and under Sections 74 ( assault or criminal force against a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty), 75 (sexual harassment), 78 (stalking) and 295 (whoever sells, lets to hire, distributes, exhibits or circulates to any child any such obscene object) of the BNS at the Phase-1 police station.
Earlier in November, a Chandigarh court had sentenced a 35-year-old government schoolteacher to five years in prison for molesting a minor girl student in 2022. The child had alleged that her teacher used to tease and molest her. The teacher had also called her to his room and started an obscene conversation with her, asking if she had watched any obscene movies and if she had any relations with any boy.
