NIVH school music teacher surrenders in POCSO court

DEHRADUN: The music teacher of the model school in the National Institute of Visually Handicapped (NIVH) who was accused of molesting girl students of the institution surrendered before a POCSO court on Tuesday.
The teacher, Suchit Narang, had been untraceable for more than a month. According to sources, he had first sought anticipatory bail from the high court but after the HC refused to grant him bail, he appeared in the POCSO court and surrendered.He has been sent to judicial custody till October 8.
Police officials said that they will now seek his custody to record his statement in the matter. “The accused is at present in judicial custody but we will seek his police custody so that his statement can be recorded,” said Umesh Kumar, station officer, Rajpur police station.
Before his arrest, Narang had issued a statement claiming that he was “completely innocent” and was being framed in the entire matter. “I had reported the matter of sexual abuse of a student by the previous music teacher of the institute Ramesh Kashyap. After an enquiry was done, it led to the arrest of the teacher. Because of this, I started facing resistance from other staff members who turned against me for not supporting a fellow teacher,” the statement quoted Narang as saying. It also cited letters written by Narang in May to the institute’s then director saying that he was being threatened by other staff members and feared for his safety. Narang’s father told TOI that “the charges against Suchit are :malicious made with an objective of revenge and grudge.” “If Suchit was an abuser, then he would not have chosen to report the matter of sexual abuse of another teacher. On the contrary, he would have chosen to suppress it and help that alleged teacher. His arrest is simply sending out a message to society that no one should dare stand against social evil but should rather overlook them. Or else they should be ready to pay the price.”