Tilaiya Sainik School

Hazaribagh, Sept. 29: The prestigious Tilaiya Sainik School was rocked by a MMS scandal involving hostel superintendent Ramesh Pandey today.

The 40-year-old allegedly made an MMS clip of a 17-year-old schoolgirl last year, the existence of which was discovered by the victim herself yesterday, following which she filed a police complaint.

While the police have registered a case and are looking for Pandey, who has gone missing, school principal A.K. Varshneya has set up a three-member committee to probe the incident.

Pandey had apparently tried to rape the teenager, the daughter of a grade four employee of the school, in October last year.

According to the victim’s father, Pandey had called his daughter to his house on the school campus last year. When she went there, the married hostel superintendent tried to force himself on her. Unknown to the girl, Pandey also filmed the rape attempt on his mobile phone. The girl fled from his house and did not speak about the incident to anyone out of fear.

Yesterday, when the girl went to a nearby cyber café, she was told by the owner about the MMS clip which he claimed he had got from Pandey. The shocked girl informed her father who approached the Chandwara police station and lodged an FIR last evening.

Deputy superintendent of police Lallan Singh confirmed that an FIR had been lodged and that raids were on to nab Pandey.

Principal Varshneya described the incident as shocking and said if found guilty, Pandey faced strict action, including termination of service. “I have constituted a team of three senior teachers — Menon P. Mohan, Kamla Kumari and S. Koshi to probe the matter and to hand over a report to me,” he said.

The victim’s father said all he wanted was justice for his daughter.