A court in central India has remanded in judicial custody a Catholic school principal while police have intensified their search for a priest and a nun who are wanted in an alleged sexual harassment case.
Leaders of the Jabalpur Catholic diocese, however, denied the allegation, which they say is a conspiracy to tarnish the image of a Church institution that serves the poor.
On March 7, a court in tribal dominated Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh state remanded Nam Singh Yadav, principal of the diocesan higher secondary school.
Dindori is about 140 km southeast of Jabalpur, the diocesan headquarters, and 460 km east of Bhopal, the state capital.
Yadav, a priest, a nun, and a teacher have been charged with violating the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
On March 4, the district’s child welfare committee lodged a complaint with the women police station in Dindori district accusing the four of sexual harassment of eight female students.
The inspection of the hostels for boys and girls attached to the school was carried out at the behest of officials from the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
During the inspection, one of the girls reportedly accused the principal of inappropriately touching her.
The police, who had accompanied the child rights team, immediately took the principal into custody.
The team also took away the eight girls.
The police, however, released Yadav the following day after other students of the school and their parents staged a demonstration demanding the principal’s release.
They alleged that Yadav was trapped in a “totally fake case.”
However, the principal was rearrested March 7 reportedly under pressure from the chairman of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.