Kendrapada: Five staff of a private school in Odisha’s Kendrapara have been arrested for allegedly sexually harassing a student in the last two years.
The incident came to light when the victim’s mother recently lodged a complaint with the Kendrapara District Child Welfare Committee (CWC). A team of four members of the Child Welfare Committee interrogated the victim and conducted the investigation. After this, the victim’s family also lodged a complaint at Rajkanika police station on Saturday.
Based on the complaint, the police registered a case under relevant sections of the BNS and POCSO Act and arrested five employees of the school. According to District Child Protection Officer Bijay Ketan Sahu, this incident happened in a private school.
He said, ‘The Child Welfare Committee received the complaint on February 18 and started investigation the next day. A team from the Child Welfare Committee recorded the statement of the victim and visited the school to investigate. Sahu said that the victim’s family had lodged a complaint by calling 1098. After this, a team of four members of the committee visited the school.
Kendrapara SP Siddharth Kataria said, ‘After receiving the complaint, the IIC of Rajkanika police station went to the victim’s house. A case was registered at Rajkanika police station and five people were booked under POCSO sections 4 and 6. All of them have been arrested and are being interrogated. The SP said that a team of an additional SP and a woman DSP has been formed to investigate the case. Kataria said, ‘I will monitor the case myself.’
Meanwhile, the District Congress condemned this incident. A team led by District Congress President Debasmita Sharma met the victim and her family that day. He said, ‘This is a very sad and shameful incident. I met the victim’s family and assured them that I am with them in their fight for justice. I demand that action be taken against the accused as soon as possible. If we take this incident lightly, other people will also dare to commit such crimes.
