Lucknow: A 48-year-old govt school assistant teacher has been arrested in Deoria district for allegedly molesting girl students while on duty at a primary school in the Mahuadih area. The accused, Mainullah Siddiqui, had been assigned charge of running the school for a day in the absence of its regular teachers.Police registered an FIR against the teacher following a complaint by the mother of one of the students and arrested him on Tuesday.The Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) has also suspended the accused, while departmental action has been initiated against an education official for allegedly delaying the reporting of the incident.According to the allegations, the incident occurred on Oct 3, when both regular women teachers of the primary school were on leave on account of ‘Jivitputrika’ fast. Siddiqui, an assistant teacher from another school in the same block, was assigned responsibility for conducting classes that day.The teacher allegedly behaved inappropriately with three girl students aged between eight and 10 years. He also allegedly touched an eight-year-old girl inappropriately and engaged in obscene acts in front of other students.The accused allegedly urinated on a chair inside the classroom and consumed alcohol in front of the girls. He also allegedly took three students on his motorcycle to a nearby crossroads, where he drank alcohol, before returning to the school with them.The alleged misconduct came to light after the girls returned home and told their families about the teacher’s behaviour. Shocked by their accounts, the parents went to the school to confront him, but he was not present.According to information provided by the education department, the school’s headmistress informed the BSA about the incident on the phone on Oct 6. BSA Ram Jiwan Maurya visited the school on Oct 8 and spoke to the students to ascertain the sequence of events.The accused was subsequently suspended. The department also issued an adverse entry against the block education officer (BEO) of Baitalpur for the alleged delay in informing the authorities about the incident.BEO Satyaprakash of Bhawani/Bhaluani has been assigned the departmental inquiry and directed to submit a report within 15 days. Further departmental action will be considered after the report is received, the BSA said.
