CHANDIGARH: A 34 year old female has been arrested in Chandigarh for allegedly sexually abusing a 14 year old boy she was tutoring. The child's parents contacted Childline, a 24-hour telephone helpline service for children in distress, and were guided to lodge a complaint with the police. Chandigarh senior superintendent of police Nilambari Vijay Jagdale said, “We have registered a case under Section 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.” The accused, a government school science teacher, was neighbour to the victim at Ram Darbar colony in Sector 31, Chandigarh.
Both families knew each other well, which is why, the class 10 student and his younger sister started taking tuitions from the woman in September last year. Dr Sangeeta Jund, project director of Childline, said, “The teacher requested the boy's parents to send their daughter for tuition separately so that she could 'focus' on their son. The parents agreed but, on the pretext of teaching him, she started luring the boy physically in the beginning of 2018. She also gave him a SIM card to stay in touch with her.”
Jund said the teacher, who has two girls, aged 10 and eight, had grown possessive of the boy. As his grades dropped in March, his mother barred him from going to accused's place. The teacher contacted the victim's parents in April, asking them to send him for tuitions. In a desperate bid, she urged the parents to meet her with their son one last time at her house. Toxic drama then ensued as she locked the boy in a room in her house in the presence of her husband and daughters, and the boy's parents. Soon, neighbours intervened and the boy was rescued. However, that wasn't the end of it. As the victim reached his house along with his parents, the woman followed them and barged into their house. She drank a bottle of cough syrup kept in the boy's house and threatened to commit suicide. Authorities were called soon and the woman was taken to a hospital. She was produced before a local court a few days later, and has been remanded in judicial custody.
