TURA, SEPT 30: The district session court on Friday remanded two school teachers arrested for allegedly raping students of a Tura school to police custody for five days.
Meghalaya police produced the accused teachers before I Rymbui, chief judicial magistrate around 4:50 pm, who remanded them to police custody till October 4.
Police arrested the accused Yogesh Joshi of Rajasthan and Deepjyoti Das of Assam after the parents of the victim had filed an FIR with the Tura police station yesterday. Both the teachers have been teaching in the school for the past three years. Joshi was an acting principal and teacher of chemistry, while Das was a computer teacher.
Police said that preliminary statements of the two teenage victims have been taken. Detailed statement would be taken in presence of child protection officer.
The victims were raped at one of the teacher’s residence, when the victims had visited the teachers for a birthday celebration of one of the teacher on September 3 after drugging them.
Later, the teacher blackmailed the victims and on several occasion molested, raped and assaulted them.
One of the victims had even taken the dire step of cutting her wrist.
A group of parents today filed another FIR giving details of the case and alleged the involvement of a CRPF official, who was a friend of the teachers and had forced the teenage girls to massage him.
School Education and Literary minister Deborah Marak has condemned the incident and has sought for stringent punishment against the guilty teachers.
Yashwant Jain, member of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), who was in Garo hills to attend a seminar at Ampati in South West Garo Hills, has taken note of the incident.
“We have instructed the SP of the district to conduct through investigation. We have also taken up the matter with the higher authorities of the school to probe the incident and immediately terminate the accused teachers”, said Jain.
Jain informed that the commission has asked the higher authorities, which runs schools across India to submit a report on the incident and ensure steps taken to provide safety and stop such crime in future.
He felt that the rising case of molestation, rape and assault on children was alarming in North East and Meghalaya, which is a matter of prime concern. He said the commission is working with schools to teach children to differentiate between a good and a bad touch.
In a release Civil Society Women’s Organisation (CSWO) has demanded that bail should not be given to the accused teachers, who are alleged to be involved in such a heinous crime and that the case be charge sheeted immediately without any delay, with proper sections of law against them for rape, intimidation, blackmail and section under POCSO as applicable.
They have also requested the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) to provide protection to students, who are giving witness.
“It has come to the knowledge of the CSWO that there are some teachers from the school who are trying to intimidate the students who are coming out as witnesses and are threatening them with expulsion”, the CSWO release said.
“He (Joshi) started to put pressure on me immediately after September 3. When I resisted his advances he started threatening me. He even took us to the office together (including the other victim) and blamed her of interfering in our relationship,” said one of the victims.
Deputy Commissioner of West Garo Hills Pravin Bakshi said, “We will file another FIR against the two teachers. As the chairman of the school committee, we want to understand as to how they could continue this for so long and why no one complained”.
“This is a breach of trust by the teachers and needs to be preempted. There have been many reports coming out about his behavior and we don’t understand as to how this could go on for so long,” Bakshi added.
Bakshi said that steps would be taken up to set up Child Protection Committee (CPC) in all schools so that such things are shut down completely. “We have to take preventive action and will be looking at a complete ban on corporal punishment. Any such act will be booked under assault in the future”, the DC said.-By Our Reporter
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