Kolkata: Class 2 student molested by dance teacher for months; accused arrested after angry parents protest

A teacher of the Carmel Primary School in Kolkata has been arrested for allegedly molesting a minor, on Friday, after angry parents surrounded the school and demanded access to the accused, several media reports said. [caption id=“attachment_2618624” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] According to a report in  India Today, a Class 2 student was molested by her dance teacher at the school in Rashbehari Avenue near Deshapriya Park. . CNN-News18 said that the teacher had been harassing the child for months now, and had threatened to bury her alive if she complained. The child reported the incident to her parents, who in turn, informed their relatives and other parents. The angry parents then surrounded the school and demanded that the accused teacher be handed over to them. One of the agitating parents alleged that the school authorities tried to downplay the matter when they were informed about it. “It was then we decided to stage a protest outside the school,” he said. Kolkata Police rushed to the spot to contain the situation and took the accused teacher in custody. The police also managed to safely escort him away from the angry parents and an investigation has been launched. The India Today report also said that a policeman was reportedly injured while trying to shield the accused from the beatings of the angry parents. Another report in Zee news said that the molestation was going on for almost a year. The parents also alleged that the school was trying to shield the accused and had not made enough security arrangements, including CCTV cameras on the campus. Police officials, who reached the spot to control the agitators, were also heckled. “We have taken the teacher with us to the police station,” a senior police officer said, adding the parents assaulted the accused when he was being taken away. The incident comes almost two months after the GD Birla sexual harassment case , in which two school teachers were arrested for allegedly trying to rape a 4-year-old child. The police have arrested the two physical training teachers in connection with the incident and have also formed a special committee to look into the allegations of negligence and false representation on part of the school. The incident also led to the dismissal of the school principal, who refused to take responsibility for the lack of CCTV cameras in the school. As the guardians stood demonstrating outside the Carmel Primary School the scene was eerily similar to the disquiet outside GD Birla Centre for Education in posh south Kolkata locality, where angry parents had camped outside the school for hours, leaving the principal and staff stuck inside the school. The same educational incident was also at the centre of another similar incident in 2014. According to  The Indian Express, a six-year-old girl was molested on her way to the washroom by the driver and the helper of a Volvo bus, hired by the school to ferry the students to a cultural event. “When the girl returned home, she was bleeding profusely and had to be treated at a private hospital. Her parents met the school authorities with a medical report of the child the next day, but the school allegedly tried to hush up the incident on the grounds that it might tarnish the school’s reputation and also affect the child’s future,” the report said.