High Court lawyer Nishikant Mishra in his capacity as the secretary of the Nationalist lawyers’ Forum on Tuesday filed a letter petition to the HC Chief Justice seeking his indulgence in directing a CBI probe into the sexual harassment complaint of a schoolteacher that led to an attempt to kill her by setting her afire.
Mishra’s petition alleged that the accused persons in the case seem to be very influential persons and are being protected by the law enforcing elements of the locality. “Despite police complaints of sexual harassment against Government employees were filed much before, the local police ignored the issue leading to the barbaric incident of setting afire the complainant by pouring kerosene on her,” Mishra said in his petition quoting newspaper reports.
The 27-year-old unmarried contractual teacher of a Government school at Tikiri under Kashipur block of Rayagada district was set on fire in the school hostel late on Sunday night.
The victim is now undergoing treatment in a private hospital in Vishakhapatnam with over 70 per cent burn injuries.
Mishra said the victim, a native of Puri district, was working in the school for over two years now. In July this year, she had brought sexual harassment allegations against a School Inspector (SI) of the district. When no departmental action came forth, she filed a written complaint at the Tikiri police station.
“The victim had also brought this incident to the notice of the district Collector and SP when the local police did not take any action on her complaint,” Mishra said, alleging that even senior district officials were indifferent to the plight of the woman teacher, who was staying alone more than 400 km from her hometown,” Mishra said in his petition.
“It was only after the police complaint that the victim continued to receive several threat calls asking her to withdraw the case. On Sunday night, an unknown person knocked at her door in the hostel, and when she opened the door, the intruder set her afire after pouring kerosene on her,” Mishra said in his petition, urging the Chief Justice to direct the State Government to bear the entire treatment cost of the victim and adequately compensate her family as she was their only earning member.