GOA

Fit case for the molester teacher’s school management to be booked for not reporting a criminal act

Goa Child Rights Commission writes to Mardol PS to charge the school under Section 21 of the POCSO Act; schools were asked by the Education Dept to inform the police within 12 hours of a complaint being received by the institution. Here police wasn't informed for five months till the victim girl filed a complaint

By Team Herald
Fit case for the molester teacher’s school management to be booked for not reporting a criminal act

MARDOL (PONDA): The school management which has treated the molester teacher with kid gloves and blatantly protected him is in the eye of a severe storm for what appears to be wilful ignorance of the POCSO Act as well as the circular issued by the Education Department on how to deal with sexual harassment complaints in school.

The school has clearly violated the concrete suggestion of the Directorate of Education, to report any complaint of sexual harassment in school to the police within 12 hours of receiving it. This school did not do it for over five months. It took the minor child to report it to the police for the FIR to be registered.  

While the molester teacher appears to have been comfortably protected by his school, which covered up his alleged sexual assault on a minor girl, the Goa State Protection of Child Rights Committee has asked the Mardol Police to book the school management for a clear violation of Section 21 of the POCSO Act.

This section calls for penal provisions for the failure to report or record a case under POCSO.

The letter written to the PI Mardol Police Station on Aug 28 states: “The preliminary enquiry on the molestation case of a 14-year-old student involving PE teacher case, reported under your jurisdiction reveals that the school management has violated Section 19 of the POCSO Act, 2012 which provides mandatory reporting of child sexual offences to the Special Juvenile Police Unit or the local police. Section 21 also provides penal provisions for failure to report or record a case under the POCSO Act.”

 Suggestions in the Directorate of Education Circular were ignored totally

The school management at the centre of this ugly controversy appears to have clearly and unequivocally violated the Circular, dated July 20, 2020, issued to all schools which mentioned “measures suggested” to make schools “safer”.

a) “Intimation to the police should be sent immediately by the Headmaster of the School not beyond 12 hours after receiving the information”.

b)  Moreover the circular mentioned that neither the “Internal Complaints Committee” nor “The Vishaka Committee” constituted under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (POSH) 2013, nor the school management committee shall have the right to deal, with cases/allegations of child sexual abuse.

c) It will be the duty of every headmaster to take the necessary steps mandated under the POCSO Act and inform the department of steps taken immediately not beyond 24 hrs.

The Chairperson of the Goa State Commission for Protection of Child Rights Peter Borges told O Heraldo that the Commission will pursue with the police and Directorate of Education to ensure that the Education Department’s directives and suggestions and the clear-cut provisions of the POCSO Act are not violated.

Along with the molester teacher, this school has to also be accountable to the law.

Another PE teacher molests a minor student in Salcete school

Cuncolim Police arrested 45-year-old Ramesh Gaonkar, a resident of Paddi, for sexually assaulting a minor girl; to produce the accused before the court today for obtaining a remand

MARGAO: Another shocking case of a physical education (PE) teacher allegedly molesting a minor student was reported at a government high school in Salcete on Wednesday. This is another blatant sexual assault on a minor by a person in a position of power.
Acting on a complaint filed by the school headmistress, Cuncolim Police detained the 45-year-old PE teacher Ramesh Gaonkar, a resident of Paddi, on Wednesday evening and after interrogation, the accused was placed under arrest.
The police team later took the accused to the South Goa District Hospital, Margao for medical examination and the report is awaited. 
The accused teacher’s statement will be recorded, the police said, adding that he will be produced before the court on Thursday to obtain a remand.
The police have registered an offence against the PE teacher and have also seized his cell phone.
PI Tukaram Chavan, said they have booked the accused under Sections 354 (A) (molestation) and 509 of the IPC, Section 8 of the Goa Children’s Act, Section 12 of Protection of Children from Sexually Offences ( POCSO Act) and Sections 67, 67 (A )Of Information Technology Act 2000 based on the complaint lodged by the headmistress,.
Cuncolim Police said the headmistress in her complaint to Cuncolim Police alleged that prior to August 30, 2023, the accused 45-year-old PE teacher Ramesh Gaonkar, a resident of Paddi, outraged the modesty of a minor girl.
The police said that the accused teacher was allegedly ogling the minor girl while she was playing with a skipping rope on the school premises and later outraged her modesty.
The police further stated that the accused also sent explicit videos to the minor student from his cellphone thereby violating the girl’s privacy.
According to police sources, the girl is studying in Class VIII and her statement will be recorded.
Cuncolim Police visited the school to collect more information.
The police said statements of the victim girl and her colleagues will be recorded.
A team headed by PI Chavan along with Lady PSI Kavita Rawat will visit the school on Thursday as part of the investigations.
 

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