Noida student suicide: Union minister Prakash Javadekar asks school to submit report
The Police suspended a constable for not including sections of sexual harassment in an FIR filed on the basis of a complaint by the girl’s parents.
The Centre has asked a school in Delhi’s Mayur Vihar – where a student committed suicide on Tuesday reportedly after being sexually harassed by two teachers – to submit a report on the incident, human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar said on Thursday.
Javadekar’s statement comes amid protest by several parents outside the school since morning against the administration, PTI reported. In the afternoon, some protestors blocked the Delhi-Noida road, demanding an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the death of the Class 9 student, who killed herself in her home in Noida.
“No arrests have been made yet,” ANI quoted the girl’s father as saying. “Do they think my daughter lied about harassment by teachers? Is the police under pressure or did they take bribes?”
Meanwhile, the Noida Police suspended a constable for not including sections of sexual harassment in an FIR filed on the basis of a complaint by the parents of the student, The Indian Express reported on Thursday. The Noida police said the constable, Nirpender Singh, did not understand the words “bad touch” and so did not include sexual harassment in the FIR. “The parents used that word in their complaint, and he made an oversight,” Superintendent of Police (City) Arun Kumar Singh told the daily. “He has been suspended for dereliction of duty.”
The girl’s parents alleged that their daughter was driven to suicide because she was under “too much pressure” from two teachers. They claimed the teachers had failed the 15-year-old in her exams “intentionally”. In their complaint, her parents added that the teachers would scold the girl and touch her inappropriately.
The Noida Police had earlier registered an FIR under Sections 306 (abetting suicide) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code against the two teachers. However, on Wednesday, based on the parents’ complaint, the police also booked the teachers under Section 354 (sexual harassment) of the Indian Penal Code.
The school, however, has maintained no wrongdoing. “One of the teachers against whom allegations are being made is a woman, how can she sexually harass someone,” the principal said, adding that the second teacher has been with the school for 25 years and has never had such a complaint filed against him.