The Maharashtra government on Monday ordered an inquiry into allegations that dozens of Class 12 girls were allegedly strip searched at an examination centre in Pune, ANI reported.
“It’s not correct to search girls in this manner,” Maharashtra Education Minister Vinod Tawde told the news agency. “The board doesn’t give such orders.”
On Saturday, the police filed a case against two women security guards of Vishwashanti Gurukul in Loni Kalbhor village near Pune for allegedly asking girl students to remove their clothes to check if they were carrying material that would help them to cheat in the Class 12 board examination. The guards were booked for sexual harassment and under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
The alleged incident took place between February 21 and February 28. The case was filed after some girls told their parents and then informed the police.
“They made us take off our pants, aprons and kurtas and checked our private parts for chits,” one of the complainants told the Hindustan Times. “The girls who said they were on periods were taken to the washroom to check if they were really menstruating.”
About 80 students have made the allegation, according to Pune Mirror. This is the first time Vishwashanti Gurukul has been made an exam centre.
The state board for secondary and higher secondary education had on Sunday denied allegations of sexual harassment, saying that the all girls were checked for cheating material but were they were “not undressed or strip searched”.
the incident, and said though all girls were checked for cheating material, they were “not undressed or strip searched”.
The Maharashtra Institute of Technology, the group that runs the school, called the allegations “baseless, false and defamatory”, PTI reported. The school, too, accused the students of making false claims because they had not been able to cheat in the exams. Principal Virendra Bawaskar claimed that one of the four complainants had been found to be in possession of cheating material.
TN Supe, the education officer at the Pune Municipal Corporation’s education board, said officials had visited the school and would submit a report on Monday after which the board would take action, The Times of India reported.
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