Rajasthan: Principal held for raping minor, 2 women teachers arrested for shielding him

JAIPUR: A day after Jhunjhunu Police arrested a 31-year-old principal of a government school in Rajasthan for allegedly raping a class 7 girl, the police on Saturday arrested two female teachers for their alleged involvement in destroying the evidence.
Police said that the girl had confided in two of her female teachers posted in the same school. She shared her ordeal with them, and also showed a series of lewd messages sent by the principal.
“The two teachers compelled the girl to delete the messages from her phone to shield the principal.This tantamounts to destruction of evidence and we arrested them today (Saturday),” said an official, adding that both the teachers were aware of the horrendous acts of the principal but tried to cover up the matter.
“The two teachers had learned about the matter on October 9 itself. We had already arrested the principal on Friday morning and subsequently arrested the teachers too,” said district SP, Manish Tripathi.
Sources said they are also investigating the allegations that the teachers had intimidated the girl. “The preliminary investigations indicate that the principal had been harassing the girl and sending her messages. She had alerted two of her teachers but they did not act,” an official said.
Meanwhile, the principal was arrested on Friday after an FIR was filed against him at a local police station. Police claimed that the accused raped his student on October 5 and threatened her not to speak about the matter.
The district head of Child Welfare Committee Archana Choudhary said that as soon as the CWC learned about the case, they sent a team to provide counselling to the girl and alerted senior police officials of Jhunjhunu.
Assistant director, child rights, Priya Choudhary said that the girl and her family were scared to go to the police station. “The girl saw the child helpline number 1098 on her textbook and informed about the incident. Prompt action was taken and two women counsellors visited her quickly,” she said.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)