Gujarat teacher rapes student, sexually harasses 3 others; arrested

A government school teacher has been arrested in Gujarat’s Amreli district for allegedly raping a minor student and sexually harassing three other Class 8 girls over the past two years, police said.The accused, identified as Ramshankar Pandya, teaches at a school in a village in the Jafrabad area. He is a resident of Velavdar in Talaja, Bhavnagar district. He had previously worked as a police personnel in Gir Somnath district.According to the complaint, the teacher called the girls to the staff room on the pretext of making tea and subjected them to sexual harassment. The allegations came to light after one of the girls told her parents about the abuse.The girl said that the teacher had repeatedly sexually harassed her over a prolonged period and raped her on July 21. Following the complaint, Jafrabad police arrested the accused and initiated an investigation. Rajula police said a complaint under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and rape charges was registered on Thursday.During the investigation, police found that three other girls had allegedly faced similar abuse at the hands of the teacher, taking the total number of alleged victims to four. Police are investigating all aspects of the case and are also examining whether the accused targeted any other girls at the school. The incident came to light in the context of Amreli Police’s Mission Smile initiative, which aims to improve child safety and awareness. Under the programme, schools educate children about good touch and bad touch, help them distinguish between safe and unsafe physical contact, and encourage them to report inappropriate behaviour to a trusted person or parent.The awareness programme appears to have helped the girl gather the courage to tell her parents about the alleged abuse. Her parents took the matter seriously and approached the police, who acted on the complaint.- Ends