The family has said that sexual harassment led to the suicide, an allegation denied by school authorities
Two teachers and the principal of East Delhi's Ahlcon Public School were booked on Wednesday for sexual harassment, abatement to suicide, and criminal intimidation, a day after the body of a class IX student was found hanging in her Noida house.
The family has said that sexual harassment led to the suicide, an allegation denied by school authorities. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has asked the education department to probe the case.
The Noida police registered an FIR under sections 306 (abetment of suicide), 506 (criminal intimidation), 354 (assault or criminal force with intent to outrage a woman's modesty) of the IPC and also under the POCSO Act against the trio.
It was late on Tuesday night when the 15-year-old girl's body was found hanging from the ceiling of her house in Noida Sector 52. Her parents, who were out for some work, returned home but there was no response to door bells.
When they forcibly opened the door of her room, her body was found hanging. The family rushed her to Noida's Kailash Hospital where she was declared dead on arrival. The family has alleged that the girl was in depression following sexual harassment by the two teachers and also because of poor marks.
Noida police official Rajeev Kumar Singh said cops have collected CCTV footage from the school in Mayur Vihar. "Classrooms are not covered by cameras. We have given notices to the two teachers and the principal. The family's statement has been recorded and further investigations are on," he said.
Calling the incident "unfortunate", principal Dharmendra Goyal said, "The school had been following CBSE's promotion policies and the girl had not failed. Instead, a re-test was scheduled. We will cooperate with probe agencies," he said.
The principal denied sexual harassment allegations. "The student was given marks based on her answer-sheet. The allegation of harassment is not true. The student's family had not complained to the management about the issue," Goyal said.
Primary reports from the post mortem ascertained death by hanging.
The family said the girl had complained three months ago that her teacher Rajiv Sehgal touches her inappropriately and threatened to flunk her if she resisted or raised an alarm.
After this, the girl's father even went to the school and met the principal but no action was taken. The family has also said that she was in depression as her Science teacher Neeraj Anand deliberately used to give her low marks.
Police said the girl had spoken to her father around 4:15 pm but she started crying. The family has said that she was under depression and had told her father that she tries to study hard but the two teachers deliberately flunk her, said police official Akhilesh Tripathi.
"We questioned the school teachers and the principal. We also examined the school's internal committee's report. No complaint of sexual harassment filed by victim was found," the official said.
One of the accused, Neeraj, is a woman teacher, while Rajesh has been teaching at the school for 24 years. Police said that nothing suspicious has been found against the duo, so far.
The child had been studying at the school from the very start of her academic life.
HARASSMENT?
The family has said that sexual harassment led to the suicide, an allegation denied by school authorities. The family has also alleged that the girl was in depression because of poor marks.
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