Bhuj: Principal among 4 booked for outraging modesty of girls, NCW seeks report

RAJKOT: Four women staffers including the principal of Bhuj-based Shree Sahajanand Girls Institute were booked for outraging modesty of 68 girls who were traumatized after being forced to strip to check if they were menstruating.
A day after girls and their parents exposed the inhuman treatment by holding a demonstration, Bhuj police lodged a complaint naming principal Rita Raniga, coordinator Anita, peon Nayna and hostel supervisor Ramila, who had allegedly stripped the girls, all hostelites, in the washroom on Tuesday.The FIR was lodged following a complaint by two victims.
They were booked under section 354 (outraging modesty of a woman), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (2) (criminal intimidation), 294 (a) and (b) pertaining to obscenity and others, said Saurabh Tolumbia, superintendent of police, Kutch (west). The victims were also taken for medical test.

“A team with women cops went to the college on Friday and recorded the statements of victims in a separate room, away from the trustees and teachers. The girls described the ordeal to the cops. We have also assured to provide them police protection,” Tolumbia added.
‘Victims were threatened to keep mum’
Tolumbia told TOI that the the girls were threatened and pressured not to raise this issue and keep mum.
Police said that after the expose, many girls were forced to give in writing that they had no objection to this practice and it was part of management’s policy and procedures.
Meanwhile, there were some anxious moments in Bhuj A division police station on Friday, where the FIR was lodged, after some of the victims demanded that the police withdraw the complaint.
Accompanied by the institute’s trustees, around 10-12 girls went to the police station and said that they had only given their statements and did not wish to lodge a formal complaint.
NCW asks DGP for action-taken report
Describing the practice as a ‘shameful exercise,” the National Commission for Women (NCW) has sought an immediate action-taken report regarding the incident from Gujarat DGP Shivanand Jha. In a statement on Friday, NCW said it has also sought an explanation from the institute’s trustee Pravin Pindor and principal Rita Raniga. The commission has also formed an inquiry committee to investigate the entire incident and the trauma that the girls underwent. NCW representatives are expected to visit the institute and talk to the girls soon. "NCW has also appraised the Kutch University in-charge vice chancellor Darshana Dholakia and Gujarat DGP Shivanand Jha to look into the matter thoroughly and report to the commission at the earliest on action-taken report," it said in the statement.