Rapist teacher terminated

TURA, OCT 3: Rape accused teacher Yogesh Joshi has been suspended and co-accused Deepjyoti Das has been terminated from the service after the matter was taken up strongly by the chairman of the school, who is also the deputy commissioner of West Garo Hills. In a release issued today, DC Pravin Bakshi said, “All teachers and faculty of the school has united to very strongly denounce and condemn the incident and they have expressed their  solidarity with the victims”.

In a letter of condemnation submitted to Bakshi addressed to the students of the school the teachers have expressed remorse and sorrow for the act of two delinquent teachers and have vowed to take corrective steps that such incident never recurs in the future.

Bakshi informed that the District Child Protection Unit led by the District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) of the district has been activated and the team has taken the statement from the students following the guidelines and norms in such cases in a non-invasive way.

He informed that DCPO have also done counselling for the victims and have also recommended that the victims may be considered for shifting temporarily to the shelter home for women and children in difficult circumstances.

He informed that police has started inquiry through Women’s Police Station by a Woman Police Officer and inquiry is being conducted as per provisions and guidelines of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and POSCO Act.

Bakshi, who is chairman of the school, called an emergent meeting and strongly condemned the incident. All the teachers were also directed to prepare a joint statement severely and unequivocally condemning the incident that had tarnished the image of the school.

In the meeting it was stressed that nobody has been absolved in the case and all the teachers also will cooperate fully in the police inquiry. No teacher would also leave station without the permission of the chairman so that they can be witness in the case or for inquiry matters.

Bakshi has also directed all schools to immediately constitute Child Protection Committees with not less than half of the teachers, students, staff and parents being women/girls.

Childline toll free numbers will be displayed inside the schools in all schools and awareness and sensitization programmes will be conducted for all schools.

It was also suggested that all schools should install CCTV in their campus and inside rooms.

Disciplinary action will be taken against the two accused and a departmental inquiry team  had come on September 30 itself but they did not follow proper procedures and did not inform the district administration and police to take due permission and neither sought support from the DCPO before making their own inquiry which was stopped and the statement taken by them was seized.-From Our Correspondent