Cook accused of molesting girls at school

A cooking assistant at a residential school in Alamel town of Sindhagi taluk has been accused of molesting and raping girls for the past four years. The students have lodged a complaint through the district Child Helpline.

Sunanda Tolabandi, the convener of district Child Helpline said that the students have written to the Helpline narrating the sexual harassment by Vijaykumar Entamana.

“The students were lodging complaints over phone since August 15. We visited the school for counselling the students when the girls gave details of their ordeal.

The information was communicated to the district administration and the police on August 18,” she said. Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer K B Shivakumar said that the principal of the school had been asked to lodge a complaint.

He said that action would be taken against the suspect after conducting an inquiry by an officer of the Social Welfare department. The block education officer has been made in charge of the school and all the staff of the residential institution had been asked to stay away from the school.

The CEO said that the Department of Public Instructions has deputed teachers and cooking staff to the residential school. A team has been sent to the school for assessing the situation and a team of state-level officers will visit the school on Thursday.

Sindhagi tahsildar, deputy director of Women and Child Development and Mahesh Potadar, the taluk Social Welfare officer visited the school. Potadar said that girls cried before him narrating their ordeal. The principal of the college has lodged a complaint with the police against Vijayakumar and another.

District incharge minister M B Patil has said that a high-level inquiry committee headed by the deputy commissioner would probe the incident. In a press release, he said that he had directed the deputy commissioner and the Zilla Panchayat CEO to consider the incident as serious and initiate action against all those found involved.