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Panipat school molestation: Sweeper confesses, principal booked for criminal conspiracy
22-year-old accused was produced in local court and remanded in one-day police custody for further questioning.
Tarun Kumar, 22-year-old sweeper of The Millennium School here, has confessed that he tried to molest a nine-year-old girl student in the school toilet on Wednesday.
Police said Tarun admitted the offence during the late night interrogation on Thursday. Meanwhile, the accused was produced in a local court on Friday and remanded in one-day police custody for further investigations.
Police said the accused is resident of Rakesh Nagar area of the city and he has been working with the school for the past three years.
Meanwhile, the police have booked school principal Amita Kochhar under Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC. The accused was identified with the help of the victim and he was wearing a green shirt on the day of incident as the girl had claimed. Talking to Hindustan Times, Panipat district superintendent of police (DSP) Vidyawati said the girl identified the accused from some photographs shown to her. District child protection officer Nidhi Gupta said the girl told her school teachers that somebody had hit her, but she narrated the entire incident to her mother at home. However, the counselling of the girl was on to get more information in the case, Gupta added.
The police swung into action after hundreds of parents of students held a protest outside the school on Thursday and demanded action against the accused and school authorities.
After a day-long protest, the police rounded up all the five sweepers and one of them later admitted that he committed the crime. As per the complaint filed by family members of the victim, the accused caught the girl inside the toilet and tried to rape her around 8am on Wednesday morning, but she somehow ran away from the toilet.
Parents protest, seek principal’s arrest
Parents of about 1,000 students of the school held a protest on the second consecutive day on Friday, demanding the arrest of principal Kochhar.
The protesting parents said the incident has exposed serious lapses in the security system of the school and they will not send their children to school until the police arrest the principal and ensure the safety of their children. Also, members of the school parents’ association have filed a police complaint and demanded that Kochhar be held responsible for the incident and strict action should be taken against her.
DSP Vidyawati said the FIR has already been registered against the principal under Section 120 B of the IPC, but the investigation was still on and arrest will be made only if required.
She said the incident has exposed lapses on the part of the school and action will be taken against it. The agitating parents ended their protest following an assurance from the police regarding action against the school management.
