A police official said that parents then demanded that school authorities hand over the accused teacher to them, after realising that the teacher was inside the premises. File/Express Photo by Partha Paul A police official said that parents then demanded that school authorities hand over the accused teacher to them, after realising that the teacher was inside the premises. File/Express Photo by Partha Paul

A seven-year-old class two student in a Kolkata school was allegedly sexually assaulted by her music teacher for two months. “The accused, Soumen Rana (27), has been arrested under section 506 of the IPC and the POCSO Act following a complaint by the victim’s father,” Joint CP (crime) Praveen Tripathy said.

After the child narrated to her parents how the teacher had been behaving with her over the past few weeks, the parents confronted the school principal on Thursday.

“My brother and her wife had discussed the matter with the principal but she refused to accept it and, instead, said the girl might be lying,” the victim’s uncle told The Indian Express. The victim’s parents the informed other parents through WhatsApp groups following which they assembled outside the school. Upset that school authorities were not taking the matter seriously, parents gathered outside the school in protest. “It’s an unfortunate incident and the law will take its own course,” the principal said.

A police official said that parents then demanded that school authorities hand over the accused teacher to them, after realising that the teacher was inside the premises. “We then decided to take the victim, her parents and the accused out of the school premises,” a local police official said. As soon as the accused stepped out, some of the parents attacked him during which a police official also suffered injuries.

State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said: “We have already set guidelines for schools to follow. We will see if in this case the guidelines were followed or not.”

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