Two teachers and the principal of a school in east Delhi’s Mayur Vihar were booked on Wednesday for sexual harassment, abetment to suicide and criminal intimidation a day after a Class IX student committed suicide at her residence in Noida Sector 52.
The victim’s family alleged sexual harassment that led the girl to end her life.
The Gautam Budh Nagar police registered an FIR under Sections 306 (abetment of suicide), 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation), 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and POCSO Act against the trio.
It was late on Tuesday when the 15-year-old girl was found hanging from the ceiling of her house. The police said, the matter came to light when the girl’s parents, who were out for some work, returned home but the girl did not respond to door bells. When they forcibly opened the door of her room, she was found hanging. The family rushed her to a hospital where she was declared brought dead, the police said.
Under depression
The family members of the deceased have lodged a complaint against the school and two teachers claiming that their ward was under depression following sexual harassment from the teachers, and low marks which she had obtained in her recently concluded final exams.
Rajeev Kumar Singh, Circle officer 2, (City), said, Noida police have collected the CCTV footage from the school. “Classrooms are not covered by the cameras installed within school premises. We have given notices to the two teachers and the principal of the school. Statement of the family has been recorded and further investigations are being carried out based on their allegations,” Mr. Singh said, adding that the school authorities have, however, denied all the allegations raised by the family.
Calling the incident “unfortunate”, the school principal said, “The school had been following promotion policies of the CBSE, and that the deceased had not failed, instead a re-test was scheduled. We will cooperate with the probe agencies.”
Refutes abuse charges
The principal, however, denied any possibilities of sexual harassment against the student by school teachers. “The student was given marks based on her answer sheet. The allegation of harassment is not true. The student’s family had not complained to the management about the issue,” he said.
Primary reports from the post-mortem of the girl also ascertained death by hanging, the police said, after which her body was handed over to the family.
In their complaint, the family said three months ago, the girl had complained that one of her teachers had touched her inappropriately and threatened to fail her if she resisted or raised alarm.
No action taken
After this, the girl’s father even went to the school and met the principal to bring the matter to light, however, he said, no action was taken against the teacher. The family has also said that she was in depression as her science teacher deliberately used to give her low marks.
The family has said that she was suffering from depression and had told her father that she tries to study hard but the two teachers deliberately flunk her, said Akhilesh Tripathi, SHO Sector 24 police station.
