Vadodara: Principal of government school booked for molesting two students

The principal of a government girls school in Godhra was booked Tuesday for allegedly sexually molesting two class VII students of the Kendriya Vidyalaya school that is situated within the same campus in city’s Daluni Wadi locality.

Accused Jignesh Patel, who heads one of the three schools that are located within the same campus, asked the victims to join him in his office when they were out during their physical training session at around 9 am Tuesday, stated an FIR lodged at the A division police station by the in-charge principal of the Kendriya Vidyalaya, Shankarlal Prasad.

The FIR further stated that the accused asked the girls, both aged 12 years, to join him in his office in the neighbouring school. When the two girls went there, he held their hands and tried to behave indecently with them and make indecent comments, upon which both the victims ran out.

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They narrated the incident to the principal of their school, Shankar Lal Prasad, who then consulted his teachers and went to the office of the accused to ask whether what the girls told them was true. According to the FIR, accused Patel accepted that he held the hands of the two girls. The parents of the students were called and the matter was taken to the police station, the complainant stated.

Police registered a case under section 354 of the Indian Penal Code for assault or criminal force to women with the intention to outrage her modesty, and section 12 of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) for sexually harassing a child. The accused was yet to be arrested, police said. The school where the incident took place is one of the three schools that are located within the same premises—a Kendriya Vidyalaya, a girls’ Gujarati medium school and a co-ed Gujarati medium school.