DNA

• Bhandup schoolteacher had alleged sexual assault by two principals in 1992

Mumbai, Jan 4: A 41-year-old teacher employed with a Bhandup school has had to wait for 15 years to get the police to register a molestation case against her seniors. It was only on Wednesday that a directive from the Home Ministry effected the registering of the case with the Bhandup police.

In her complaint, Sunita Singh (name changed) has accused two principals of Amar Kaur Madhyamik Vidyalaya at Pratap Nagar of molesting her. The principals - Maruti Mhatre, 57, and Subhash Vadnere, 48, -  have, however, refuted her allegations.

Singh joined the school in 1990 as a Social Studies teacher for its secondary division on a temporary basis. In 1992, she moved court after the school management did not offer her permanent employment. Singh claimed that her employment terms stated being offered permanent employment at the end of  two years.

“Immediately after Singh took the matter to court, the school terminated her -  a decision which the court revoked,” said Prakash Vani, ACP, Bhandup. “When Singh reported back to work, Mhatre and Vadnere assured her a permanent job only on the condition that she kept illicit relations with them. When she protested, they allegedly misbehaved with her,” added Vani.

Claiming that he learnt about the case only on Thursday morning when the police landed in the school, Mhatre said Singh wanted to take revenge for her second termination in September last. In Jawhar for a school picnic, Mhatre said, “On both occasions - 1992 and September 2007 - she was removed because of her shoddy work.”

While Vadnere said one could check with the other 40 women teachers, working in the school for over a decade, vice-principal of the primary section Kalphana Parab claimed to have learnt of the incident only when police came to school.

About the delay in registering Singh’s complaint, Senior Inspector Prakash Jadhav said, “Though the case landed in court in 1992, we got the order only on Wednesday after the Women Rights panel completed its investigations.”