Representative Image

MEERUT: This Kasturba Gandhi Residential Girls School in a Meerut block is like any other school for kids from humble backgrounds that abounds in sincerity and talent. The banality, however, goes down with the sun. And howling banshees take over the premises.

Eight girls from the school, which houses 100 students and has two teachers and a warden, have sent letters written with pencils and detailing their midnight ordeals to the district magistrate. They also wrote how they were molested by the ghosts. A probe has been ordered.

According to the girls, their warden covers her face and walks around the premises in the dead of night to scare them every day. “She carries a perfume-like liquid with her and keeps spraying it on certain girls. She also whispers, pretending to talk to a girl that doesn’t exist. She pulls our clothes and at times even arms and legs but we do not budge or open our eyes,” a 10-year-old girl studying in class VI wrote.

There are three big rooms with 20 beds each where two girls share every bed. Ideally, one teacher should sleep with students in each of the rooms, but they don’t.

The girls, studying in classes VI, VII and VIII, also wrote how they were also molested on several occasions by the banshees who came with their faces covered.

“Our warden has also taken a few girls outside the school premises at night. She also came to my room and touched me inappropriately when I was half-asleep and I continued to pretend that I was asleep,” another class VIII girl wrote.

According to the sources, parents of a few girl students had also approached local police with their complaint a few days ago but their FIR was not lodged.

Meerut basic shiksha adhikari Satendra Kumar said, “An inquiry, headed by the Kasturba Gandhi schools’ district coordinator and block education officer, has been set up. Prima facie, it has come to our knowledge that the children were being scared as part of a tiff between a full-time teacher and the warden. For the molestation charges, role of a class IV staff is being suspected. As soon the report is submitted, appropriate and strict action will be taken.”