2 Tailors Sexually Harass 100 Tribal Girls In Uttarakhand School: Police

Two tailors hired by a residential school for tribal students in Uttarakhand's Khatima have been charged for allegedly sexually harassing around a hundred girls while taking measurements for their uniforms, the police said on Wednesday. 

Shakeel and Mohammad Umar were charged under the Indian Penal Code for using criminal force to outrage the modesty of a woman on the basis of a complaint by the school's Parents' Association president Rajbir Singh Rana, Khatima's Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Veer Singh said.

The residential school is in the state's Udham Singh Nagar district where 250 Scheduled Tribe (ST) students, including 120 girls, study.

According to an inquiry by Khatima's Sub-Divisional Magistrate Ravindra Bisht, about 100 girls were inappropriately touched by the accused while taking their measurements, Mr Singh said. 

It was all done in the presence of three members of the school staff who did nothing to stop them, the ASP said. 

In the FIR, the three staff members - Ashok Arya, Mamta Kholia, and Chandrashekhar - have been accused of making fun of the students instead of saving them. Ashok Arya told the girls that nothing would happen even if they were raped, the FIR said.

No arrest has been made in the case yet.

The ASP said the three staffers were contractual employees of the school whose contracts were terminated following the incident. The FIR also said that similar incidents had occurred at the school in the past but the school staff threatened to oust the girls if they complained.

The ASP said the school administration is also being interrogated

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