Sexual harassment of students: Probe ordered against teacher in Ludhiana

LUDHIANA: Director of school education Tejdeep Singh Saini on Friday ordered an inquiry against a physical training instructor of a government school for allegedly sexually harassing school girls.

Saini has directed the district education office Ludhiana to submit a report within 30 days.

Charanjeet Singh, principal of another government school, will be the inquiry officer. Talking to TOI, Charanjeet said, “We have received the orders. Students and staff of the respective school will be questioned.”

Principal of the school, where the alleged incident occurred, said, “This is a case of 2022. Many departmental inquiries have been conducted against the teacher, who had been suspended too.”

The physical training instructor (PTI) was booked in June 2022 for allegedly sending inappropriate messages to girl students and forcing them to talk to him over the phone at odd hours. The accused also allegedly threatened the girls against revealing the matter to anyone. The girl students alleged that the PT teacher used to repeatedly call them and if they did not pick up, he would flood their phones with messages.

The FIR was lodged on the statement of school principal, following the intervention of Punjab State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights. The PT teacher was even suspended by the department.

The matter had come to the fore in May 2022 when some students filed a written complaint with the school principal.

Following the complaint, the principal initiated a probe. The students submitted some screenshots of the messages allegedly sent by the PT teacher and also the timings of the calls at odd hours.

FIR lodged as child rights’ body intervenes

After some activists raised the matter, the Punjab State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights on June 9 2022 sought a report from the district education officer on why an FIR was not lodged. Following this, the principal lodged a complaint at Sidhwan Bet police station. The teacher was booked under various sections including 354-A (sexual harassment), 354-D (stalking), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 12 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.


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