Howrah, July 18: A CPM leader is on the run after allegedly molesting a five-year-old student of the Howrah school where he taught.

The student of Ballavbati Primary School had time and again complained to her mo-ther and grandmother about Basudeb Khatal’s habits, but they didn’t take her seriously.

Last Wednesday, she returned from school and refused to go there ever again. She narrated in detail how the 52-year-old teacher had been tormenting her, making her stay back in class after all her friends had left.

The startling details made mother Rakhi Chatterjee (name changed) sit up. She went to the CPM-led Shankarhati village panchayat and lodged a complaint with its chief Sanjali Dolui.

Khatal came to know about the complaint. “The next day, he fell at my feet and requested me to settle the issue amicably. I decided to forgive him and admit my daughter to another school,” the mother said.

But neighbours who came to know of the girl’s plight cajoled Rakhi to go to police.

She went to the Jagatballavpur police station yesterday, but the officer-in-charge there allegedly refused to accept the complaint.

A large number of villagers from Ballavbati, mostly Trinamul Congress supporters who had accompanied Rakhi to the police station, then persuaded deputy superintendent (headquarters) Samarendranath Tudu to register the complaint.

Khatal was accused of attempt to rape.

The police raided his house around midnight, but he was not there. “He is absconding,” district superintendent of police N.K. Singh said.

The victim made a statement before a judicial magistrate today. A medical test will be conducted on her.

The CPM’s Howrah district committee has started an inquiry into the incident. Khatal, the secretary of its Munshirhat local committee, lives at Nabasan village, 3km from the girls’ house. He has been teaching in the school for 10 years.

“We will take strong action against him if he’s guilty,” said Shreedip Bhattacharya, the CPM’s Howrah secretary.