Mohali: Teacher detained for sexually harassing class 5 girls and sent to one-day remand

A day after a private school sports teacher was arrested for allegedly showing lewd videos to five female students of Class 5, all under the age of 10, and sexually harassing them, a local court on Thursday sent him to police custody for one day.

Police had arrested the 35-year-old teacher on the school premises on Wednesday after he was alerted by parents and school management. The only male teacher at the school, the suspect, had taken the job in April. His services were terminated after the incident came to light.

Police have seized his mobile phone, through which he showed the obscene videos to the children, and will send it for forensic analysis.

On Thursday, the children returned to school as usual and received guidance. “We keep a close eye on the children. They are doing fine and following their normal routine at school,” the school principal said.

The children had confided in their principal and parents after school on Tuesday and complained that when they went to the teacher’s room, located in the basement of the school, he showed them lewd videos on his mobile phone. Parents also accused the teacher of sexual harassment.

The school principal claimed that the children came to her on Tuesday afternoon with a complaint against the sports teacher before telling their parents, after which she fired the teacher and coordinated with the parents and the police.

After receiving written complaints from the children’s parents, police took the teacher into custody.

The accused was booked under Sections 10 (aggravated assault) and 12 (sexual harassment) of the POCSO Act and under Sections 74 (assault or criminal force against woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 75 (sexual harassment), 78 (stalking) and 295 (the person who sells, rents, distributes, exhibits or distributes such an obscene object to a child) of the BNS on the phase-1 police station.

Earlier in November, a Chandigarh court had sentenced a 35-year-old government teacher to five years in jail for molesting a minor student in 2022. The child had alleged that her teacher teased and harassed her. The teacher had also called her to his room and started an obscene conversation with her, asking if she had seen obscene films and if she had relations with a boy.