Nat Comm for SC/ST seeks report into girls stripping incident

Taking a serious view of stripping of girl students in a school here, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes today sought a report from the district administration and asked District Education Officer to take strict action against the teacher.
Commission's Vice Chairman Raj Kumar Verka today visited the families of the girls here at Mandiala village and asked Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner and Batala SSP to send a report to the Commission in connection with the incident.
Seeking arrest of accused teacher, Verka asked District Education Officer to take strict action against the teacher, and instructed the administration that they should let such incident happen again.

"This incident was a heinous crime against the mankind in general and Dalit girls particularly," he told reporters here.
Thirteen girl students of a government school in the district were allegedly stripped by a school teacher who suspected them of stealing a Rs 500 currency note which the female teacher found missing from her wallet last week.
She had called seventh grade girl students and allegedly stripped them in a classroom to search her currency note, police had said.
The victims, who felt humiliated, disclosed the incident to their parents, following which parents of one of the victims complained to police which registered a case under Section 354 (assault or criminal force with intent to outrage modesty of woman), 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC and provisions of the SC/ST Act against the accused teacher.

Punjab Government had already ordered an inquiry into this incident.