In the light of growing reports of sexual harassment on young girls surfacing across India, the courage of a 14-year-old from Pune must be lauded. The brave teenager helped to put behind bars a peon from her school who allegedly molested girls and forced them to watch pornography.
The incident
According to Pune Mirror reports, Raghunath Choudhury, the 47-year-old accused was the peon at a private school in Kothrud, Pune. He had been harassing three girl students for the past few months, by inappropriately touching them and forcing them to watch pornography with him.
Reportedly, the accused caught hold of the students and abused them, while insisting them to “learn” from the pornographic content.
Apparently, the incidents have happened recurringly between February 3 and October 5, 2018. If any of the girls could escape his molestation attempts, he would threaten her for weeks to stop her from lodging any complaint. The ordeal could have continued had not one of the girls gathered up the courage to open up about the matter to her parents who made no delay to complain to the school authorities. The school conducted an internal probe into the complaints on the course of which the other two 13-year-old victims also came forward.
Police suspect more cases of abuse in the school
The school authorities informed the Kothrud police with collective complaint letters from all the victims, following which Choudhury was charged with inappropriately touching a minor, under Section 7 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 as well as under IPC Section 354 for assault or criminal force to woman with the intent to outrage her modesty. He has been remanded in judicial custody until the investigation is completed.
Appasaheb Shevale, the Kothrud police inspector, suspects that there could be more unreported cases against the accused. “There could be more skeletons in the cupboard. We hope to receive more complainants through the school officials to mount more case on him,” he told Pune Mirror.
