3 employees held for ‘sexually harassing’ girls at Himachal child protection home
SHIMLA:Three employees of a child protection home in a remote area of Chamba district in Himachal Pradesh were arrested after six girls living at the facility accused them of sexual harassment, police said on Wednesday.
The child protection home in Chilli in Tissa, 100km from Chamba, is run by the Himachal Pradesh Council for Child Welfare. There are 34 girls in the shelter home managed by eight staff members, including two women.
A 16-year-old girl complained to the home in charge, Juma Khan, on Monday about being sexually harassed by a clerk, cook and sweeper. Later, five other girls also approached Khan, accusing the same staff of harassing them.
Khan reported the matter to Chamba deputy commissioner, who in turn informed the police.
The police registered a case and took the girls for a medical examination. Superintendent of police (SP) Virender Tomar said the accused have been arrested and booked under Section 354 A (sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment) of the IPC Section 12 (sexual harassment) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The director of women and child development department, Manasi Sahay Thakur, said all the three men allegedly involved in the crime will be suspended. “If something substantial is found, their services will be terminated,” she said.
Thakur added the Chamba district child protection officer had been asked to shift the girls to another home. The girls were not willing to shift but later agreed and were taken to Chamba.
Some staff at the child protection home, however, have questioned the role of the police, saying they did not cooperate with them in the case. Tomar denied their allegations and said timely action was taken after registering the complaint.
Chamba DC Sudesh Mokta has directed the council to shift all male staff from the home .
16YROLD COMPLAINED ABOUT CLERK, COOK AND SWEEPER TO HOME INCHARGE. LATER, FIVE MORE GIRLS ACCUSED THE SAME STAFF
TEACHER USED TO MAKE THE GIRL STAY BACK AT SCHOOL, AND ALLEGEDLY DRUGGED HER BEFORE RAPING HER THE FIRST TIME
DEHRADUN: A 57-year-old teacher of a government inter-college in Tehri district of Uttarakhand has been arrested for allegedly raping a 15-year-old Dalit student repeatedly, and who only recently realised that she was eight months pregnant.
The girl was produced before special judge (Pocso) Meena Tiwari, and her magisterial statement was recorded under section 164 of the CrPC.
Manoj Negi, Kempty station house officer, said the victim’s parents were told that the girl is carrying an eight-month-old foetus, after she was taken to a hospital in Dehradun district on complaints of stomach ache around two weeks ago
“The doctors have told us that it is too late to abort the child now. We are shocked and don’t know what to do,” said the victim’s father, a farmer in Kharak village in Tehri district.
The girl’s alleged rapist, Parmesh Kumar was arrested from Raipur area on the state capital’s outskirts late on Tuesday night.
The court of Justice Sachin Kumar Pathak sent him to judicial custody for 14 days.
Kumar, a father of two and also a Dalit, taught history at the college. He used to make the girl stay back at school and had drugged her before raping her for the first time. “He had been assaulting the girl since January this year. He continued with the crime for months and intimidated her against revealing about it to anybody,” Negi told HT.
The accused has been booked under Sections 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 328 (causing hurt by means of poison) of IPC as well as under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.