Two persons have been arrested in connection with the attack on teachers at a school in Narendrapur on Saturday.
Police said the two who have been picked up — Maheswar Naru and Sonu Mandal — are residents of the area where the school is located. They have been booked under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code, including those related to trespassing, assault and theft.
“The persons who have been arrested are residents of the area. They were involved in the attack. We are trying to identify the other people who were involved in the assault,” said an officer at Narendrapur police station.
Around 20 people had barged into a school in Narendrapur on Saturday and
allegedly confined a number of teachers and other employees in a room and assaulted them.
The attack followed allegations that a student of the school had been raped by a teacher and the institution had kept the incident under wraps.
A section of the teachers, however, has told the police that they suspected that the headmaster was behind the attack, an officer at the police station said.
“A court case related to alleged irregularities in the running of the school is
pending. Some teachers feel that although the people who barged into the school claimed that they were attacking the teachers because of the alleged rape, the real motive was to force the teachers to withdraw the case against the headmaster,” the officer said.
On Saturday, the headmaster had denied the allegation. “We have been trying to curb attempts to create unrest at the school by the staff. Why would we do something that would tarnish the school’s reputation?” the headmaster had said.
The police said a student was allegedly raped by a teacher in September. The alleged incident was kept under wraps for some time but it came to light in January.
“A case of alleged rape against the accused teacher was drawn up at the Narendrapur police station on January 10 on the basis of a complaint lodged by the girl’s family,” said the officer.