Gujarat: Teacher arrested for molesting 11-year-old boy for a year in Amreli, would take him to secluded spots in school

RAJKOT: A 39-year-old school administrator and teacher, Shailesh Khunt, was arrested on Wednesday for alleged repeated aggravated sexual assault on an 11-year-old boy, a Class 7 student, over a period of a year. The victim's mother, who makes a living from agriculture, registered a complaint against Khunt at Babra police station in Amreli district. Police have invoked Sections 8 (sexual assault) and 10 (aggravated sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act. In her FIR, the boy's mother stated that her son had been studying at the private school in question in Babra taluka since 2024. About 35 students from their village go to that school. The school bus comes to their village to pick up and drop off the students. She stated that on Sept 1, her husband and she were at home. When she told her son he had to go to school, he refused and started crying. When she asked him the reason, he got scared. He later told her that his English teacher, Shailesh Khunt, had been doing ‘dirty things' to him over the last year. The boy said Khunt would repeatedly call him alone to the computer lab, to the back of the school, to its roof or to the old bathroom, where he would molest the boy, kiss him on the lips and touch his private parts. The boy said Khunt told him not to say anything about this to anyone at home. Khunt promised that he wouldn't scold the boy or give him any homework. Investigating officer Ankur Desai told TOI that Khunt was arrested on Wednesday. On Thursday, he was produced in court which sent him to judicial custody. "Statements of other teachers and children will be recorded for the investigation. We will also look for evidence of the alleged crimes in CCTV footage of the school. As Khunt was the school administrator, the investigation will ascertain whether he committed offences against any other student," Desai said.