The school in Akola where 55 girl students were molested by three teachers.
Three teachers of the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Maharashtra's Akola have been arrested in connection with the alleged sexual harassment and molestation of 55 minor girl students. Two of three teachers had fled even before a First Information Report had been filed by the parents of the girls. Sources indicate the students were being abused for close to four years.
Maharashtra Women's Commission member Asha Mirge had first approached police with the complaint, along with 25 parents on March 31. "There are 359 girls in that school. Nearly 45 to 50 girls from the school told me that they've been molested at some stage," said Ms Mirge, after she met some of the girls.
"They were forcibly hugged, their private parts were touched and they were forced to indulge in conversations about sex by the teachers," she added.
"We received a tip-off that they could be hiding in Nagpur and sent a team to nab them. Last night we arrested two teachers from Nagpur and one from Akola," said Inspector P Dhakne of Akola's Civil Lines Police Station.
The principal of the school, Ram Avtar Singh, too had filed a complaint on the matter, on the request of the police. He also informed Ms Mirge that the school had received complaints on the issue on March 20 and 21, and that the report of an internal committee had been forwarded to the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Divisional Commissioner in Pune.
Ms Mirge also said she would raise the issue with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Human Resource Development Minister Smrit Irani.