Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 23 Jul: A week after the molestation case at the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) in Sagalee in Papum Pare district was reported, Sagalee ADC Audil Toko informed that the demands of the students have been taken into consideration, and that the cook has been arrested and is now in the jail in Jollang, Itanagar.
“The demand for the transfer of the headmistress is also under process and the representatives from the DDSE office have taken note of this,” Toko said, adding that the school management committee (SMC) will also undergo a reshuffle.
He informed that, according to the new guidelines of the state project director, the Sagalee ADC should be the chairman of the SMC, but an NGO has been running it instead.
Earlier the ADC convened a meeting with representatives of the Papum Pare DDSE office and the stakeholders concerned at the school’s campus in Tani Hapa on Saturday.
Students of the school had walked to Sagalee, 9 kms from the KGBV, at night on 14 July and staged a protest, accusing the school’s cook of molesting a student.
The meeting was attended also by members of the All Sagalee Students’ Union, the school’s management committee, parents, and students of the school.
Speaking to the media, the victim said that the cook had shown her sexually explicit images, following which she ran away. In another instance, she said, “the cook asked me to have sexual intercourse with him and said that ejaculating inside once wouldn’t cause pregnancy.”
She also complained that the cook touched her breast.
“Later, a complaint was made by the students, but one of the teachers told me that I was just making up a story. The headmistress and the teachers even stopped me from complaining to my parents. I informed my elder sister about the incident, and she shared it with two of her friends, and on the night of the 14th, at around 1 am, we marched to escape from the hostel and stage a protest,” she said.
The victim expressed happiness over the arrest of the cook, and said that the headmistress should also be transferred.
