The superintendent of a private girls hostel in Gariaband district of Chhattisgarh has been accused by the girl students of mental and sexual harassment. The girl students allege that the superintendent indulges in bad touch and molestation. If they protest, they threaten to cut off their TC and expel them from the school. At present the police has arrested the superintendent. Police said hostel superintendent Narayan Chauhan has been arrested, while a warden is being questioned. Gariaband Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) DS Patel said, ‘The victim alleged that while she was changing her clothes, the accused was staring at her and also touched her badly.
This shocking incident came to light when some girl students came out of the hostel on the pretext of some work and informed their parents through some other mobile phone. The woman warden was also accused of allowing entry to outsiders. Apart from the allegations of sexual harassment, about 32 female students of classes 1-12 live in ‘Nayak Girls Residential Hostel’, run by an NGO in Chhura area.
Police said, ‘The girls complained that the warden’s friends used to come and go on the campus and tried to befriend them. Patel further told the media that the girls alleged that Superintendent Chauhan and the warden spoke obscenely and sexually harassed them and also threatened the girls not to tell outsiders about the incidents. “The girls said that the warden and the superintendent had threatened to expel them if they tried to narrate the incidents,” police said.
On Monday, right-wing organizations including ABVP, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal demonstrated outside the hostel and demanded strict action against the accused.
Police said they are examining the legal documents related to the hostel. The Women and Child Welfare Department has become active to ensure a thorough investigation of the matter.
