‘School, cops sat on molestation complaints for a month’

Alleges ex-principal; school removes 3 teachers, says they were framed

A day after three physical education teachers of a Wadala school were arrested for allegedly molesting girl students, its former principal has alleged that both the Trust that manages the school and the police had sat on complaints of molestation for a month.

"The girls had complained to us last month and we told their parents to register an FIR at Wadala police station. But the police did not take any action against the offenders and the Trust tried to scare the students to prevent them from complaining," the former principal said.

The accused teachers, Madan Kolkar (23), Deepak Aware (26) and Kishor Baragal (22), who taught at J K Knowledge Center in Wadala East were granted bail by a Bhoiwada Court on Wednesday after paying bond of Rs 10,000 each.

They have been removed from the school. "We decided to remove them after the police complaint was made, but may take them back if their names are cleared," said Trust Chairman J K Jadhav.

As far as the former principal's claims that a complaint had been made earlier, police rubbished them.

"We only received a complaint at 3pm on Tuesday when a girl student came to the police station with her parents. We promptly arrested the men. So far, we have recorded statements of 12 students and are coaxing others to come forward," said Pandurang Ingule, senior inspector, Wadala police station.

According to the police, the accused had been working at the school for the the past six months and allegedly passed inappropriate remarks at girls during classes. "They were employed to teach children from classes one to five, while the complainants are class 10 students. We are trying to reconstruct the sequence of events," he said.

... contd.

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