Headmistress, teacher of private school among four held for hushing up sexual harassment of nursery student

Police said the main suspect, the 25-year-old man, is yet to be arrested, as school authorities helped him escape from the spot.

Four people, including the headmistress and a teacher of a private school, were arrested on Thursday for allegedly trying to hush up the sexual harassment of a six-year-old student by a 25-year-old man on the school premises in Noida’s Sector 12 on Tuesday, said senior police officers.

When the girl reached home, she revealed the incident to her parents, and they reached the Sector 24 police station on Wednesday with a complaint. (Representational image)

Police said the main suspect, the 25-year-old man, is yet to be arrested, as school authorities helped him escape from the spot purportedly to “avoid the school getting defamed”.

Manish Kumar Mishra, additional deputy commissioner of police, Noida, said the child is a (upper) kindergarten student at the school in Sector 12.

“On Tuesday, while the child was in school, a man aged around 25 years, who was engaged as a daily wager to complete some construction work at the school, sexually harassed her. The girl narrated the ordeal to her class teacher, who reported the matter to the headmistress and school supervisor,” said Mishra.

Subsequently, the school authorities informed the contractor who had hired the daily wager about the incident, and instead of alerting police, they helped the suspect flee the spot, said Mishra.

“It is suspected that the school authorities tried to cover up the incident allegedly to avoid the school being defamed publicly,” said a senior police officer, asking not to be named.

Later, when the girl reached home, she revealed the incident to her parents, and they reached the Sector 24 police station on Wednesday with a complaint.

“On the complaint by the survivor’s parents, a case under sections 263 (resistance or obstruction to lawful apprehension of another person) and 74 (assault or use of criminal force on woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Pocso Act was registered at Sector 24 police station against the prime suspect, the school teacher, headmistress, school supervisor, and the contractor. Except for the prime suspect, all four were arrested on Thursday,” said Ram Badan Singh, deputy commissioner of police, Noida.

The suspects’ names have been withheld by the police to protect the identity of the survivor.