: A Class V student of a MCD-run school in Outer Delhi’s Kirari was allegedly molested by a teacher when she approached him for help with her assignment.
Speaking to The Hindu , the girl alleged that the teacher had passed indecent remarks at her in the past, too.
On Saturday, she had approached the accused for help with her assignment in Hindi.
“The teacher asked me to meet him in the lunch break. When I went, he took me to an empty room and made me sit on his lap,” the girl said.
The accused went on to grope her, all the while telling her that she was “beautiful” and that he “liked” her. The girl said she had resisted the abuse, and ran out at the first opportunity. On returning home, she informed her mother.
“I updated my husband about it the next day. On Monday, we visited the school,” said the girl’s mother.
Turnaround of events
At the school, however, the student and her parents were allegedly locked inside a classroom by the teacher and some of his colleagues, and threatened. “When I demanded an explanation from the teacher, he slapped my face and kicked me on my chest,” the stepfather said.
The girl was then allegedly threatened into saying that it was her stepfather who had been molesting her. The statement was allegedly recorded on a mobile phone.
“They took my two-year-old brother in their arms, and threatened to kill him. They also warned me that they would get my parents jailed and make me land up in an orphanage if I disobeyed them,” the 12-year-old said.
Her stepfather, meanwhile, was “forced” to give his thumb imprint to a “confession” that he had been molesting the girl. “I am an uneducated man. I did not know the contents of the letter they threatened me into signing,” the stepfather said.
The school authorities also alleged that the girl’s stepfather was at fault. Satwant Singh, the school in-charge, said his staff members had heard the victim narrating to her friends on Monday about the abuse by her stepfather.
“The girl was crying and telling her friends that whenever her mother was away to her village, her stepfather would enter her blanket and abuse her. We decided to call her mother alone, and alert her about it. But the woman came accompanied by her husband. Later, when we did, the girl’s parents influenced her into putting the blame on the teacher,” he added.
Mr. Singh also denied allegations that the stepfather was manhandled.
A case of molestation, criminal intimidation and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act has been registered at the Aman Vihar police station. The police are yet to make any arrests.
A senior investigator, meanwhile, said an NGO counsellor met the victim’s three friends to whom she had mentioned about the alleged abuse by her stepfather.
“The counsellor has said that the girls stood by their statement,” the officer said.
“The teacher took me to an empty room and made me sit on his lap. Then he groped me”
