School board chief arrested for harassing woman teacher

The complainant,Snehal Patel,has been serving at Suman High School No 5 in the Limbayat area of the city for the last six months.

The police said Hira had come in contact with Snehal two years ago at a social gathering in Karanj Pardi

village of Olpad taluka,Surat. While Karanj Pardi is Snehal’s native village,Hira’s wife belongs to the same village.

The police said Hira had feelings for Snehal and wanted to enter into a relationship with her,which she refused. She got married to one Bharat Patel on June 2. But even after her marriage,Hira continued sending text messages on her mobile phone to meet him and forced her for divorce,stated the complaint,which was lodged with the Woman Police Cell on Wednesday.

Snehal further alleged that when she refused to meet him,the accused threatened her husband,too.

After securing bail,Hira told The Indian Express that he was falsely implicated by Snehal as she owed him over Rs 2 lakh. “She was known to me as my wife belongs to the same village. She had taken Rs 2.60 lakh from me to meet her marriage expenses. She had assured me to return the amount in a few months. I have got written evidence (to prove this). She returned Rs 50,000 a few weeks ago. When I demanded the rest of the amount,she started threatening me that she would make public our friendship and lodge complaint against me,” he said.

Hira added,“I have submitted an application to the Surat crime branch about the money dispute and the threat to implicate me in a false case.”

Women police station Inspector K R Dabhi said they are carrying out investigations in this regard and “we will go through the details of the monetary transactions between them”.