Govt okays fresh probe in sexual harassment of students in Thane

Mumbai, Mar 20 (UNI) The Maharashtra government today ordered a fresh probe into the sexual harassment of girl students by a male teacher in Thane district, after Opposition members made a strong case against mishandling of the earlier investigation in the matter.

Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil, while intervening during the discussion in the question hour, said a senior woman police official will visit the Ganesh Nagar school situated in Manda-Titwala village in Kalyan taluka of Thane district.

He also assured that the case where a male teacher is alleged to have molested a girl and sexually harassed many others, would be re-investigated and neccessary action would be taken against the guilty.

Earlier, Mr Patil said the principal of the school had conducted a probe into the matter and it was found that such an ''incident had not taken place at all.'' Besides, he said, the parents of two girls who had lodged a police complaint in January this year had withdrawn it later on.

To this, BJP member Sudhir Mungantiwar said the Minister has admitted that a police complaint was filed by the parents of two girls and added that no parent would make false complaint which involved their daughters.

Ms Shobhatai Phadanvis (BJP) wanted to know if the police had verified whether the parents had withdrawn their complaint under any pressure. ''If the result of the earlier inquiry that such an incident had not taken place is true, has any action been taken against the parents for lodging false complaints,'' she asked.

Meanwhile, replying to another question on the housing scam in Jalgaon city, Mr Patil said investigations were on in the alleged irregularities while sanctioning nine housing projects in Jalgaon. Assistance is being taken from an expert committee from the field of construction, he added. He also said, the Aurangabad bench of Bombay High court has restrained taking action on the one-man committee report in the case, the report of which has been submitted to the government.

According to the court order, no action should be taken against the persons found guilty in the report without hearing what they had to say.

However, Opposition members Sahebrao Ghode, Dr B S Patil and Wamanrao Chatap alleged that the Government was trying to shield the guilty and said hurdles were being created in way of the investigations. They demanded a CID inquiry in the case, but Mr Patil rejected the charges.

The members also took objection to the presence of Jalgaon strongman and NCP leader Sureshdada Jain on the seat allotted to Ministers. They alleged that Mr Jain was prompting the Deputy Chief Minister in his reply.

When Mr Jain rose to make a clarification, the Opposition members objected to it and a brief noisy scene followed.

Later, Deputy Speaker Pramod Shende, who was in the chair, asked Mr Jain to go back to his seat.

When Mr Jain rose to speak, Mr Shende adjourned the House for 10 minutes.

UNI