Rajkot: A female teacher at a private school in Gujarat’s Rajkot city has been booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act after being accused of assaulting a four-year-old girl and causing injuries to her private parts, a senior police officer confirmed on Saturday.

According to the police, the child informed her mother about pain in her private parts. A medical examination later revealed an internal injury which had led to an infection. Based on the complaint lodged by the child’s mother on April 11-12, a case was registered against the 42-year-old teacher under relevant sections of the POCSO Act.

"The girl's mother has said her daughter told her she was beaten up by her teacher. The girl is unable to communicate properly and requires psychiatric evaluation. She has not been able to specify whether her teacher used a pen to inflict injury on her private parts or beat her up using her hand," said Deputy Commissioner of Police Jagdish Bangarwa. "The girl's mother later told us that she checked with the school and found the principal took her to his room and beat her up," Bangarwa added. 

While the teacher refuted the allegations, the school released CCTV footage of April 11 of the classroom to claim no such incident took place. Meanwhile, members of the National Students Union of India, the students' wing of the opposition Congress, staged a protest demanding action against the culprit. Some of them were detained for a while after the protest, as per police.

PTI