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Kolkata child sexual assault: School principal summoned by police

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IANS Kolkata

The principal of a city school, where a four-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by two teachers last week, was on Tuesday summoned to Kolkata Police headquarters, a senior police officer said.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged the teachers' community to take more responsibility to avoid such incidents.

"Sharmila Nath, the Principal of the G.D. Birla school, has been summoned today by Kolkata Police's women grievance cell. She is being interrogated in relation with the sexual assault case," Joint commissioner of Kolkata Police, Crime, Vishal Garg, told IANS.

A police complaint was lodged against the principal by the victim's father demanding her arrest on Sunday for allegedly trying to cover up the issue of sexual assault and indirectly supporting the accused instead of taking action against them.

 

Referring to the incident, Banerjee said: "Teachers community must take more responsibility to isolate people who are involved in such incidents. We will take stand against them who committed such acts and nothing will be compromised."

The case was taken up by the special committee formed on Monday to look into the allegations of negligence and false representation on part of the high-profile G.D. Birla Centre for Education.

On the other hand, the agitation by the guardians of students on the issue of student security continued during the day even as the school authorities and the representatives of guardians' forum held a meeting inside the school.

The Chief Minister said guardians have all the right to protest against the incident, but all must ensure that classes resume. "The ICSE Board should also intervene," she said, adding that some people are trying to fish in troubled waters.

She criticised the "attempt to politicise the incident" and not allowing the school to resume normal operations.

The agitation spilled onto the other south Kolkata schools as several guardians gathered on the streets demanding installation of CCTV cameras in the entire school premises.

"The schools are increasing the annual fees every year by leaps and bounds. We are accepting all that but they must ensure our childrens' security. CCTV camera have be installed in all the schools," an agitating guardian demanded.

Massive agitation by the guardians took place in another south Kolkata-based institution, M.P. Birla Foundation Higher Secondary School, over the allegation of another case of sexual abuse on a nursery student almost three months ago, leading to the arrest of a staff member of the school.

Last Thursday, the four-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by two PT teachers inside a school washroom. Both the accused have been arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, and sent to police custody till December 15.

The school authorities issued a notice on Sunday stating that all the junior as well as senior classes would remain indefinitely closed. The notice also said that the school has removed the two arrested physical training teachers from duty.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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First Published: Dec 05 2017 | 8:54 PM IST

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