Jind sexual harassment: Ex-sarpanch had met Geeta Bhukkal in 2013 in Chandigarh

Tribune News Service

Deepender Deswal

Hisar, December 18

Even as a political slugfest was witnessed in the Haryana Assembly over the issue of sexual harassment of schoolgirls at a government senior secondary school in Jind, the former sarpanch of the village said she had led a village group which met the then Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal at Chandigarh to demand the transfer of the accused principal who was serving as the headmaster of the school at that time.

Principal molested temporary staff

We came to know that the principal molested and misbehaved with some students during a trip organised by the school. Another incident came to light when the accused principal sexually assaulted a temporary employee of the school. Raj Kumar, another former sarpanch

Talking to The Tribune over the phone, former sarpanch Sudesh Rani said they had met Geeta Bhukkal in Chandigarh in the beginning of 2013, probably in February. “I was accompanied by some other villagers comprising panchayat members,” she said. Though there was no evidence with them as the temporary employee as well as the students refused to register a formal complaint against the school headmaster.

She said after hearing his misdemeanors, they met the then Education Minister and sought his transfer from the village school. The minister had assured us that action would be taken. Soon, a team of the Education Department from the Directorate of Education at the head office in Panchkula visited the school and conducted an inquiry. The accused principal was transferred out of the school subsequently, she said.

Regarding any police action in the case, she said they did not make a police complaint. Sudesh was the sarpanch of the village from 2010 to 2016.

Another former sarpanch Raj Kumar (2005-2010) also recalled the incident as he was among the villagers who raised the matter against the principal.

“We came to know that the principal molested and misbehaved with some students during a trip of the school. Another incident came to light when the accused principal sexually assaulted a temporary employee of the school,” Kumar recalled. The accused principal had got recruited in the Education Department in 2008.

Though a senior police official in Jind had said there was a Daily Dairy Report (DDR) of the incident that occurred in 2013 at a government school involving the accused principal who is in jail now, the police could not locate the DDR. The official said it seemed that the police might have destroyed the record as per the norms, which was the practice before the computerised entry of the complaints had started.

The present sarpanch of the village Jagbir Singh said, “I don’t have any information regarding the matter”, he stated.

The Deputy Chief Minister, Dushyant Chautala, who is the MLA from the Uchana Kalan Assembly constituency in Jind district, said in the Assembly that the accused principal had faced allegations in 2005 and 2011 too, but a “compromise” took place at the Jhajjar residence of the then Education Minister, Geeta Bhukkal, in 2011.

Another prominent politician from Uchana Kalan, BJP leader Birender Singh had also demanded a thorough probe into the incident. He was in the Congress earlier and had defected to the BJP in 2014.

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