A 45-year-old teacher has been convicted on account of sexually assaulting two Class 4 students within the school premises at Bharatnagar on the outskirts of the Amreli district in Gujarat.
The accused, identified as Mahendra Patel, was allegedly assaulting the girls continuously between the 20th and 27th of February. Gujarat activist Mujahid Nafees told The Observer Post, “He forced the girls, aged 9 and 10, to see obscene videos and consume alcohol for 8 days until one of them tried to inform her family about the situation, who later caught him red-handed and handed him over to the police.”
A First Information Report (FIR) has also been registered in the case; however, according to Nafees, it does not mention the details about the victims being coerced to drink alcohol and watch inappropriate videos. Police investigations also suggest that the teacher had allegedly confined them to a room and forced them to engage in oral sexual activities.
The families of the victims demand a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe into the details of the offence, for which they recently protested outside the collector’s office in large numbers.
“A Special Investigation Team (SIT) must investigate the case in depth. They must also look out for those who supplied alcohol to the accused, and if he was involved in any similar activities earlier. We have also written to the DGP, demanding reparation under the victim compensation scheme”, Nafees added.
The authorities charged the accused under sections 9 (m) and 10 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012 and Section 75 of the BNS, leading to his arrest on Monday.
