School teacher missing after complaint of harassment

PANCHKULA - A school music teacher has gone missing after being accused of sexually harassing five girl students and police conducted raids in Haryana and Chandigarh Monday to nab him, police here said.

Sham Bahadur Thapa, a teacher at the Army Public School, was booked Sunday for allegedly sexually harassing Class 5 students on the basis of a complaint from school principal N.R. Baberwal.

“We received a complaint against Thapa from the school principal here. We raided his house in Sector 25 (in Panchkula) late Sunday but did not find him there. We are raiding various places in Haryana and Chandigarh in search of the accused teacher,” a police official said.

“Thapa’s mobile phone has been put on surveillance and we are hopeful of arresting him soon. We would record the statements of victim students, their parents and the school authorities.”

Baberwal registered the first information report (FIR) after he got complaints from the parents of five female students against the music teacher. The school authorities suspended Thapa with immediate effect.

Army Public School, which is over 25 years old, is situated at Chandimandir army cantonment area here, around 10 km from Chandigarh.