Relatives of the accused allege that teachers made malicious complaint

Rinchen Zangmo  | Tsirang

A 54-year-old man from Tsirang, who was the officiating principal of a primary school in the dzongkhag, was detained on November 8 after police and dzongkhag’s child protection unit received complaints about him molesting and harassing students.

According to a complainant, the accused harassed eight students of class II and III. The complaint was lodged on November 5.

Following the complaint, the dzongkhag’s child protection unit and Tsirang police initiated a joint investigation, where some students complained of the officiating principal engaging in ‘bad touch’.

The teacher, who taught Mathematics to the students, was appointed as the officiating principal after the former principal went for studies.

Meanwhile the relatives of the accused alleged that two teachers lodged a complaint against the officiating principal because of personal grudges.

A relative alleged that the main complainants, a female teacher in the school and a male teacher, had disputes with the officiating principal and lodged the complaint.

He claimed that a few parents had lodged complaints against the female teacher for mistreating the students and the officiating principal forwarded the case to the gewog. “The male teacher created nuisance in the school under the influence of alcohol on Coronation Day celebration and the officiating principal reported against him to the gewog.”

A resident of the locality, who chose to remain anonymous, said the officiating principal and the teachers had issues and some parents made verbal complaints to the gewog gup about the situation in the school.

Some parents said the complainant informed about the alleged molestation to a few parents.

Police officials said they were investigating the case and were yet to find tangible evidence.

The case would be forwarded to the Office of the Attorney General after the investigation.

It was learnt the relatives of the officiating principal had approached police headquarters in Thimphu to bail the accused, as he had been under police custody for more than 18 days and his health problems needed attention.