A written complaint in Janta Durbar of DC Palamu brought in result much faster than expected. The written complainant was filed by Kishore Kumar Pandey lawyer cum president of Abhiwawak Sangh.
DC, Palamu, Shantanu Kumar Agrahari said that a written complaint came to him in his Janta Durbar on December 14 where the complainant alleged that a teacher of Sarvodaya Uchch Vidalaya, Belhara under Pandu police station has trafficked minor children of scheduled caste of Belhara village to his home in Bihar promising the minors good education and well meaning life there but there in that teacher’s house in Bihar the minor sent from here had all the pains and atrocities of life there inflicted by the family of the teacher there.
The DC said as the complaint was of serious nature he asked the district social welfare officer to constitute an inquiry team of three people to look into the allegation as filed before him.
Sources said the district social welfare officer acting upon the order of the DC set up a three member team led by district child protection officer as the case involved a minor and juvenile justice act lays down that any inquiry where a minor is a victim is to be compulsorily done and led by district child protection officer. The team was set up on December 14 itself.
Incidentally the complainant too was put in this team of inquiry which had two more members the leader of the team the district child protection officer and lady supervisor of child development project Bishrampur.
The inquiry team went to this school in Belhara on December 15 and took down the statements of the two minors who were alleged to have been sent home in Bihar by a lone teacher of this school Manish Kumar Pandey.
What the complainant Kishore Kumar Pandey wrote in his complaint to DC unfolded in a big way when the inquiry team confronted with two minors of scheduled caste there in Belhara who were sent to Bihar by the government teacher Manish Kumar Pandey on promise of education and good life but there in the teacher’s house in Bihar these two Belhara minors of SC community were put to domestic work with all labour pain and hunger but with no love.
The inquiry team recorded the versions of these two minors who said they were beaten up in hands and heads by the wife Priyanka of this teacher Manish K Pandey. There was swelling in their body too. One had wound in his left hand too. They said they were made to toil but with little food and if they failed to finish their food in time their food was taken away from them and thrown.
The inquiry team also recorded the versions of the minors where they said the wife of the teacher used to guard them when they took their family’s call on phone and for any adverse communication by them on phone to parents she used to beat them up.
Officer in charge of Pandu police station under which comes Belhara Arun Sharma said, “The teacher Manish Kumar Pandey was finally arrested on December 21. He was jailed on December 22. Police have invoked sections of IPC, POCSO and SCT/ST prevention of atrocities act against him”.
Sharma further said, “The teacher’s wife Priyanka is also an accused. This criminal case lodged against her husband is also against her. She is in Bihar and so is right now not arrested. Law will take its own course. The minors who were sent to her in Bihar from here by her husband have all complaints against here.”
Sharma made it clear, “Police did not rescue these minors. They had already escaped from this teacher’s house in Bihar some 6 months back. Police just found them out here in Belhara.”