Two girls who had enrolled there in April 2021 and 2022 filed the police complaint Wednesday. They were minors at the time and had just cleared Class 10 exams.
The complainants said the male constable would touch them inappropriately during practical training sessions at an open ground in Nalasopara in the morning. They also cited other instances such as lewd messages and obscene video calls.
This is a despicable case of sexual exploitation. Boys and girls enrolled to train for police recruitment exams run by the two GRP cops despite the duo being in government jobs. Did their seniors know they were running an academy? The POCSO Act is stringent and the police must ensure the charges against the accused hold up in court.
There were around 50 boys and girls enrolled in the academy run by the two constables, who also lived in Nalasopara and were alleged to be in a relationship.
Girls accuse male constable of stalking and video calling
In a complaint against two GRP constables running a training academy in Nalasopara (W), two girls said that many others at the academy spoke about the male constable harassing girl students and troubling them on their mobile phones. They said he would lure girls with the hope of police jobs and tell them he would help them crack the exams.
The woman constable was said to have met the main accused while she was training at the academy. She became a constable and was posted in Vasai.
One of the coplainants said that on the days the male constable was not training them at the ground, he would conduct lectures in class from 10am to 12.30pm.
She said that when she joined the academy in April 2021 she did not face any harassment from the main accused. In 2022, she left the academy to finish her Class 12. She said she rejoined the academy in May this year and that is when the main accused began sending her lewd messages.
She spoke to the woman constable, who she said took her mobile phone, mirrored her WhatsApp and began talking to the main accused. When the student asked her why she had done so, the woman constable told her that she wanted to see whether the male constable was abusing girl students in the academy.
She said the two accused had asked her to double as a supervisor as she was the most senior student in the academy.
The other complainant said that the main accused made a video call to her which she accidentally picked up. She was shocked to see him undressed and performing sexual acts. She left the academy but the harassment continued.
The girls said that they would be called to the academy office when no one else was around and that they were also stalked by the main accused.
The police booked the two constables under Section 345 (wrongful confinement) and Section 354 (D) (stalking) of the IPC, and under various sections of the Pocso Act.
The constables were remanded in police custody when produced before the Vasai court on Thursday.
The police said they had seized the mobile phones of the two accused. Their chats with the two students were also in the possession of the police. The police said they were talking to other students to know if they too had been sexually harassed.
(The victim’s identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
