PUNE: An 18-year-old physical training (PT) assistant has been arrested on the charge of molesting 14 girls of a civic English medium school during PT drills between June 29 and July 6.
Senior inspector Srihari Bahirat of the Khadak police on Saturday said, "The girl students of Std VIII to Std X informed their school counsellor and the principal that the PT assistant touched them inappropriately on the pretext of helping them with the drills. The principal reported the matter to the police and lodged a complaint after which the PT assistant was arrested on Friday night".
Bahirat added, "The regular PT teacher's post at the civic school is vacant. It had hired the PT assistant, who has an education till Std XII, at a stipend of Rs6,000 per month on contract".
"We will be meeting the students to find out if there are any more complaints against the suspect. We will be checking CCTV cameras for evidence. We will be counselling the students to instil confidence in their minds that the police are with them," he added.
The school principal said, "An internal inquiry has been ordered into the alleged incident." The principal in his FIR stated that the PT assistant, a former student of the same school, was suspended after the girls complained to the counsellor alleging that he touched them inappropriately and threatened them with dire consequences.
PMC education officer (secondary and technical education) Popat Kale said, "The civic body has given the school to an NGO to impart quality education to 450 students of Std VIII to X. The NGO recruited the assistant after an interview and a PT drill".
Kale said, "The girls have accused him of eve-teasing and passing individual comments on them. The school authorities took cognisance of their complaints, the counsellor conducted a preliminary inquiry and registered a complaint".
"We have taken a number of initiatives such as launching smart girl and police kaka schemes to sensitise students. The police have installed complaint boxes to encourage students to fearlessly make complaints if they are subjected to sexual harassment by teachers and others," he added.
The NGO's Pune region co-coordinator said they had appointed the PT assistant as an intern to assist teachers because he was a former student of the school and a sportsman.
"He was sensitised on the child protection policy and an undertaking was taken from him that he would abide by the school norms. We have CCTV cameras and his work was supervised by the teachers but in spite of that this unfortunate incident occurred," he said.
