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Guardians beat up Bhowmick with slippers in Raiganj on Monday. Picture by Nantu Dey
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Raiganj, May 14: A primary school teacher was thrashed by a group of women at the institution today for allegedly sexually abusing their daughters studying in Class IV .
Atalanta Bhowmick has been detained by the police.
The incident comes less than a week after parents beat up a primary school teacher in Cooch Behar on May 9 for allegedly molesting a Class IV girl. The teacher was later arrested.
Sunita Sarkar, whose daughter is a student of Satsangh Primary School near here, said: “My daughter often complained that the teacher used to misbehave with her and some of her classmates. On Saturday, she came home in tears. She told me that she and two of her classmates had gone to the washroom when suddenly the teacher entered and locked the door from inside. He then asked the girls to take off their dresses.”
Sunita added that after hearing the incident, she visited the other two girls who also narrated the same story.
“I and few other guardians had planned to complain to the headmaster today. But when Bhowmick was summoned to the headmaster’s office, he began shouting at us. Some women in the group got angry and thrashed him,” she said.
Sunita added that Bhowmick often came to the school drugged.
Headmaster Harinarayan Sarkar, said: “Around noon a group of 50-60 women entered the school and complained to me that Bhowmick had sexually abused some students on Saturday. I summoned the teacher to my room and when he entered, the women began beating him up. They slapped him and hit him with slippers and brooms. I tried to stop the women, but they continued to rough him up. Later, I informed the police who came and took away the teacher.”
Sarkar added that he had no knowledge of what the teacher had done. “I have no idea about what he did to the girls. Sometimes he came to the school under the influence of drugs. I have been warning him for the past few months. Now he has stopped using drugs,” Sarkar said.
Haradhan Das, the local Congress councillor, said: “This man (Bhowmick) used to turn up drunk to take classes and I had made several complaints to the district primary school council (about him). But no action has been taken.”
The guardians also lodged an FIR with Raiganj police.
The chairperson of the district primary school council, Sekhar Roy, said a departmental inquiry had started.
“We are also making inquiries and we want that the teacher be given an exemplary punishment,” Keya Chowdhury, the chairperson of the State Women’s Commission said over the phone from Calcutta. Inspector-in-charge of Raiganj police station Subir Pal said the teacher had been detained.
Bhowmick said he had been framed. “I do not have such perverse tendencies. I have a family and the allegations are totally false. I am being victimised. My brother is the CPM zonal committee secretary of Raiganj and there is a deep rooted conspiracy against me,” the teacher said from the police station.
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