PUNE: A Pune police team on Wednesday arrested the principal of a well-known English medium school in the city from Chembur in Mumbai for allegedly molesting a student.The police had registered an offence against the principal, who is also a priest, on September 15 for allegedly showing an adult video clip to a 14-year-old male student twice in March this year and for allegedly touching him inappropriately.The school’s counsellor, whom the boy had approached at the end of the academic year, has also been booked for not reporting the crime to the police.Senior inspector Sayaji Gaware told TOI, “The principal was in hiding in Pune for almost three days before boarding a private luxury bus for Ahmedabad from the Khadki area after midnight on Tuesday. The police team, while working on information from sources, contacted the travel agency and, later, the bus driver. The team got the vehicle to halt at Chembur around 6.30am on Wednesday.”“The Mumbai police detained the principal and the Pune police team later took over his custody and brought him to the city later in the day. The principal was formally arrested around 5pm following a preliminary inquiry. We are now questioning him over his whereabouts for the last three days and are also searching for the school counsellor,” Gaware said.In their complaint, the boy’s parents said that the counsellor had neglected their son’s complaint and had threatened him. The principal and the counsellor have been charged under section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.The school authorities had told TOI on Sunday that the principal was not attending school for nearly two weeks.The student, who is now in class IX, was in class VIII when the alleged abuse took place. The FIR stated that the abuse first took place on March 10 last year in the principal’s chamber. Two days later, the principal again showed the student the video clip in the rest room of the school. The boy had reported the abuse to the counsellor at the end of the 2017-18 academic year, the police said.“About a month ago, the student told his parents about the abuse but, fearing repercussions from the school, the parents decided not to act on it. The family, however, confided in a friend who told a social worker about it. The social worker informed the police about the abuse and we approached the family. After a lot of counselling, the parents agreed to file the complaint,” Gaware said.

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