Jharkhand: Villagers blacken teacher’s face for 'showing porn to girls'

NEW DELHI: Irate villagers, mostly women, blackened the face of a school teacher with ink and garlanded him with shoes in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district for allegedly showing pornographic videos to girls inside the classroom and touching them inappropriately.

After the police, on finding out about the incident, rescued the accused and took him to an outpost, the villagers staged a dharna demanding that he be sent to jail immediately. At least six girl students of an upgraded middle school in Noamundi block had told their parents that the teacher showed them indecent videos and touched them inappropriately, a police officer said. The villagers then lodged a written complaint against the accused on Wednesday.

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Claiming that no action was taken against him despite the filing of the complaint, villagers held a meeting and decided to punish him. Women in large numbers caught hold of the accused, smeared ink on his face on Thursday and garlanded him with shoes. As they were taking him towards the nearby railway station after parading him in Badajamda area, the police reached the spot and rescued him.

The protesters subsequently staged a dharna outside the police outpost demanding that the accused be sent to jail, the police officer said. Circle Inspector (Kiriburu) Virendra Ekka tried to pacify the agitated women, who held the demonstration for several hours. Officer-in-Charge of Badajamda police station, Basudev Toppo, said the matter was being looked into.