Mob fury after TV sting shows teacher 'selling' student

New Delhi, Aug 30 (UNI) Dozens of vehicles were damaged and a police Gypsy van set on fire by angry demonstrators near a government girls school in Daryaganj area of Central Delhi this morning after news spread that a teacher was caught 'red-handed' on camera 'trading' a student.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government's Education directorate has suspended the accused with immediate affect and ordered an inquiry into the incident by a two-member committee conssiting of two Deputy Directors.

Education Minister A S Lovely has asked the state education secretary to personally conduct an enquiry into the matter and submit a report in two days.

Protests started this morning at about 1130 hrs after a television report showed a women teacher of the school allegedly forcing a school student into prostitution.

Soon after the 'operation' was aired on the TV channel, several parents converged at the school and barged into the principal's room seeking explanation on what they had heard and demanded arrest of the accused teacher, according to sources.

By then a large crowd had gathered outside the school shouting slogans against school authorities.

Later, while a police Gypsy was set ablaze and another overturned by the mob, a Blueline bus and nearly 25 cars standing in a close-by parking lot were damaged by the agitators who protested the alleged 'selling' of girls of the 'Government Sarvodaya Girls Senior Secondary School' on Asaf Ali Road in Mahal Azam Khan area of Daryaganj.

Two ACPs were also injured in stone-pelting by agitators. While fingers and the elbow of the ACP Paharganj were injured seriously, ACP Karol Bagh received head injuries.

The school gate was also broken by some protestors.

Police resorted to mild lathi-charge after the agitators turned violent and pelted stones at the school and security forces. After this failed to make the desired impact it had to burst tear-gas shells to disperse the violent gathering.

As violence spread authorities got the school vacated and local shopkeepers downed shutters.

Traffic on the Asaf Ali Road, where the school is situated, was also blocked. It was opened for traffic after the mob thinned at about 1615 hrs.

Localites said trouble started at about 1130 hrs after a television channel aired footages of a 'sting operation' showing accused Uma Khurana 'handing over' a Class XI student for a specific amount to an undercover reporter.

According to the TV 'report', the teacher would take nude photographs of girl students who visited her house for tuition after drugging them. She would then coerce them into prostitution threatening to get their photographs published.

Senior police officials refused to confirm or deny that the accused had been arrested.

Delhi Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said it will examine the aired tapes in detail and then take appropriate action. ''We are also looking into the legal options available into the case.'' Accused Uma Khurana (41) was recruited in 1987 in an MCD school.

In 1994, she was promoted as a TGT (Maths) in a Delhi government school.

Last year, she was suspended for misconduct and poor school result during her stint in the Vivek Vihar branch of Sarvodaya school.

She was reinstated and transferred to the Daryaganj branch of the Sarvodaya school about two months ago from the Vivek Vihar branch after parents in that school lodged written complaints against her.

Sources also said that the accused who is unmarried, owned a palatial house in posh Yojana Vihar area of East Delhi.

Delhi BJP president Harshvardhan has demanded that Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely resign as several scandals in schools broke during his regime.

UNI