A 25-year-old teacher from a madrasa in Gujarat’s Junagadh district has been apprehended on allegations of sexually assaulting at least 10 of his minor students, according to the police.

In addition to the teacher (maulana), the police have also taken into custody a 55-year-old trustee of the madrasa, who is accused of failing to act on the students’ complaints against the teacher, as stated in a press release by the Junagadh district police on Monday.

The teacher was arrested from a hideout in Surat, while the madrasa trustee, who had initially escaped, was captured in Junagadh on Sunday, according to the statement.

An FIR was registered by the Mangrol police on Sunday, following a complaint filed by a 17-year-old boy. The accused have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 377 (unnatural intercourse), 323 (assault), 506-2 (criminal intimidation), and relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The offense came to light when one of the students from the residential school, located on the Mangrol-Veraval bypass, used another maulana’s mobile phone to call his mother and report the teacher’s inappropriate behavior and actions with students. The woman subsequently contacted the police and informed them about the alleged sexual abuse of students by the madrasa teacher.

When the police visited the premises on October 21 and gained the trust of the students with the assistance of some Muslim leaders, 10 boys studying in the madrasa came forward to allege that they had been subjected to sexual abuse by the accused teacher. The teacher had also purportedly threatened to harm them if they reported the incidents to their parents or anyone else.

It was further revealed that when the students sought help from the madrasa’s trustee to protect them from the teacher, he reportedly took no action. Subsequently, when the trustee realized that a case would be filed against the teacher, he allegedly assisted the teacher in escaping from the area, according to the police.

As part of the investigation, Junagadh Superintendent of Police Harshad Mehta visited the madrasa and assured the parents of the students that the police would conduct a thorough and unbiased inquiry into the matter.

Source: PTI

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