Showing lackadaisical attitude in the case of sexual harassment of 30 girl students by a school principal at Jakhara village in Murar block of Gwalior, the police did not even care to give proper notice to the Hastinapur police station SHO about the summon issued by the Madhya Pradesh Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MPCPCR).
Acting on an application by an organisation based in Gwalior, the MPCPCR had sent summon to the TI of concerned police station through the Superintendent of Police to appear before it on Friday. However, when the officer did not appear before it, MPCPCR Chairperson Usha Chaturvedi called up the Gwalior Superintendent of Police, who later told that the TI was not informed about the summon properly and therefore he could not appear before the Commission.
The victims allege that the police are intentionally protecting the accused named Rajesh Upadhyay who is acting principal of a government school at Jakhara village in Murar block of the district. The accused was booked under section 354 A of IPC and subsequently granted bail. Notably, the police did not apply relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 which imposes stringent penalties for such crimes.
Earlier, the Gwalior police and administration ignored repeated complaints by the victims regarding sexual harassment by the accused. The police refused to lodge a compliant saying that they would first probe the matter.
Even an application regarding the matter was submitted to the Additional district Collector on March 19 but no action was taken.
Subsequently, the matter was raised by the victims on March 6 at a public hearing of State Medical Education Minister Anup Mishra on whose direction the accused was suspended and an FIR was lodged against him under section 354 A of IPC for sexual harassment.
According to the victims, the accused used to molest the girl students and also forced the victims to watch indecent and pornographic video clips on his mobile. He continued to do so for many months by intimidating the students to not inform anybody about his activities. However, some of the girl students reported the mater to their elders after it became unbearable for them to tolerate the harassment.