Case registered against Arunachal teachers for disrobing girls

The case was registered on Thursday after a team from the women’s police station went to the school and took the statement of the girls.

The police in Arunachal Pradesh capital, Itanagar, registered a case against three female teachers for disrobing 88 schoolgirls as punishment after some of them allegedly wrote a vulgar note about the headmaster.

The teachers demanded an explanation from all the 88 students of classes 6 and 7, who were later made to undress before the other students as punishment. (AFP/REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)

The incident at Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, involving students of class 6 and 7, happened last week.

A local students’ body at Sagalee near Itanagar had lodged on Wednesday the complaint, but the case was registered on Thursday after a team from the women’s police station went to the school and took the statement of the girls.

“A case under section 354B (assault on a woman with intent to disrobe) was registered against the three teachers after the victims gave their statement. A case under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act was also registered against the school authorities,” the capital’s superintendent of police Sagar Singh Kalsi said.

The state’s education department has ordered termination of two teachers — Wangmu Thongdok and Sangeeta Khalikho — and suspension of Nabam Janu, the third.

An enquiry has also been constituted into the disrobing incident, education secretary Bidol Tayeng said.

A team of All Papum Pare District Students Union (APPDSU) had met the students and teachers on Tuesday, and found that an unidentified student had used vulgar words in a piece of paper mentioning the name of the head teacher and a girl student, a release by APPDSU said.

The teachers demanded an explanation from all the 88 students of classes 6 and 7, who were later made to undress before the other students as punishment, it said.

“The school authorities did not speak to the parents of the students before punishing them,” APPDSU president Nabam Tado said.

The Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has condemned the incident and said such “heinous act” by the teachers might affect the students.