Teacher arrested for sexually harassing girl student in Odisha

JAIPUR: A teacher of a school was on Friday arrested on the charge of inappropriately touching a girl student of class seven on the institute's premises in Odisha’s Jajpur district, a police officer said.

The accused is an assistant teacher at a government high school under the jurisdiction of the Jenapur police station. He was arrested on Friday for allegedly touching the private parts of the 13-year-old student on January 27, the police officer said.

It came to the fore when the girl narrated the incident to her mother after reaching home. Her father approached the headmaster of the school the next day. But the headmaster reportedly failed to resolve the issue.

The victim’s family also brought the issue to the notice of the local block education officer, demanding action against the accused teacher, but nothing happened. The family then filed a complaint with the local police station. The police too, allegedly sat over the complaint and did nothing for about two weeks.

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School students, local villagers stage protests

Protesting against police inaction and the education department’s callousness, local villagers, including the school's students, staged a dharna in front of the school on Thursday. They also demanded that the accused teacher be arrested. The sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) of Jajpur Road, S K Patnaik, reached the spot and assured the protesters that the accused would be arrested, following which the agitation was withdrawn.

The police arrested the accused teacher from Bhubaneswar on Friday. He was forwarded to a local court and remanded to judicial custody, the police officer said. Meanwhile, the Jajpur district education officer (DEO) has suspended the teacher following his arrest.