Pune: A 35-year-old teacher of a private secondary school in Hadapsar was arrested on Monday on the charge of stalking a Standard IX student (14) from July. The police are also investigating an alleged lapse on the part of a woman teacher. She allegedly did not report the matter to the school authorities after the girl narrated her woes to her.
"The school has a complaint redressal system in place, but it did not receive any complaints," senior inspector Santosh Pandhare from the Hadapsar police said on Tuesday. Pandhare said the girl's mother (32) told the police in her complaint that the teacher constantly harassed her daughter by making unwelcome remarks when she would be in the classroom, playing with classmates on the school ground or going back home. The complainant accused the teacher of constantly monitoring her daughter's movements and targeting her for no reason, like accusing her of blowing a whistle in the presence of other students.
Fed up with the regular harassment, the girl reported the incident to a woman teacher, but she did not take cognisance of her complaint and told her to behave properly. The teacher did not report the incident to her superiors. The girl then narrated the incident to her mother.
"We recorded the statements of the girl and her mother, and registered a case related to stalking and sexual harassment under the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The teacher was later arrested. The girl would be re.