Nangal: Back in 2010, a school principal in Rupnagar district of Punjab allegedly sexually assaulted minor students. For over a decade, there were hush-hush whispers about him in his village, but no one lodged a police complaint. Then, on 15 February 2022, over 190 photos and videos of the principal allegedly having sex with three minor girls, leaked on social media and went viral.
Based on the photos and videos, Ashwani Kumar, a member of the social activist group Bhim Army and an Independent candidate from Sri Anandpur Sahib in the just-held Punjab assembly elections (results of which are yet to be declared) filed an FIR against Dhiman at Nangal police station on 20 February. The principal was arrested on 24 February and has been booked under Section 376 (2) (taking advantage of official position and raping woman) of the Indian Penal Code and under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, confirmed Satish Kumar, deputy superintendent of police, Nangal.
The incriminating visuals — which purportedly show Amritpal Dhiman, principal of SD National School in Nangran Kalmot village, located about 7 kilometres from Nangal town, having sex with three minor girls — have been accessed by ThePrint.
According to the FIR, also accessed by ThePrint (and translated from Gurmukhi with the help of investigating officer Navdeep Kaur), the complainant has alleged that residents of Nangran and Passiwal villages had made “several” complaints to the district administration about Dhiman in the past, but no action was taken, allegedly because the accused is a “Congress leader”.
“I want to say that this person has an association with political parties. He is a leader of the Congress party. He was earlier the sarpanch of village Nangran. A lot of people in my area have complained about this to the district administration and the current MLA, but since he’s a Congress person, nobody took any action,” claims the FIR.
The Congress MLA in question is the Speaker of the Punjab assembly, Rana K.P. Singh, who denied that Dhiman had any links to the party when asked by ThePrint. He also denied knowledge of the alleged harassment of students by Dhiman.
While it is still not clear how the photos and videos came to be leaked online so many years after the alleged incident, police have arrested Nangran pharmacist and Dhiman’s friend, Shivkumar for the deed, since investigations showed him to be in possession of the visuals. He has been booked under sections 67 (A) and (B) of the IT Act, as well as sections 14 and 15 of POCSO Act (use of child for pornographic purposes and possession of child porn respectively)
“Shivkumar confessed he had stolen this footage from Dhiman’s computer, but we’re still investigating how the footage was leaked on WhatsApp,” said Kaur, the investigating officer. “The accused, Dhiman, has alleged that Shivkumar used the footage to blackmail him.”
Kaur added that it was still unclear for how long the alleged blackmail had been going on, and what demands were made by Shivkumar. “We are still investigating,” she said.
According to the police, none of those allegedly assaulted by Dhiman have come out to file a formal complaint against him yet. “We’re in touch with the victims and trying to get them to record a statement under Section 164 (of the Code for Criminal Procedure) in front of a judge. But the women fear this will disrupt their life, so nobody has filed any complaint yet,” Kaur said.
ThePrint visited Dhiman’s house Saturday, but his family members were not present at the time.
Meanwhile, Shivkumar’s wife, who didn’t wish to reveal her name, claimed: “Shivkumar knew Dhiman was a dirty man and had not been speaking to him for years. Dhiman is trying to frame him.”
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Villagers say they knew, but never went to police
Amritpal Dhiman has been a teacher since 1996. He teaches English and has a wife and an adopted daughter, said Kaur. He has served as sarpanch of Nangran twice, and according to locals, was unseated only a year back. Villagers also claim he is a block-level Congress leader.
Dhiman opened SD National Public School, first in Passiwal village near Nangran, in 2002. The school had to be closed in 2016, however, allegedly following protests by villagers. “The panchayat members came to know of his misdeeds at school and asked the sarpanch and Rana K.P. Singh to ask him to leave the village. He then opened another school here in Nangran,” Ashwani Kumar alleged, speaking to ThePrint.
Dhiman opened a school by the same name in Nangran in 2017.
Police said Dhiman would allegedly record his assault on students and would threaten that if they told anyone, he’d leak their photos or fail them in exams.
Villagers in Nangran told ThePrint that they “knew” what went on in the school, but chose to turn a blind eye to it. “We never sent our kids to his school, kids from neighbouring villages like Passiwal, Palri and Majari studied at his school. We didn’t send our kids there because of its reputation,” said a resident, on the condition of anonymity.
Passiwal residents too said they “knew” of Dhiman’s alleged harassment of students, but never approached the police because that would’ve brought “shame” to the community.
It’s not surprising, then, that ASI Kaur claimed ignorance of the alleged harassment and said no one had approached the police earlier.
Meanwhile, the students who were allegedly abused by Dhiman have had to live with the trauma for years.
“I approached the women in the leaked videos and asked them to come forward and tell their stories, but they’re hesitant because they’re married women with kids now and fear their marriages will suffer,” said Ashwani Kumar.
Residents of both Passiwal and Nangran claimed that Shivkumar had, in the past, shown them recordings of Dhiman’s alleged exploitation of the students.
“Shivkumar loved to gossip. He would show the footage to a group of people and ask them to not tell anyone, and then do the same again,” claimed a villager.
It is not clear if the accused had been still assaulting his students, Kaur said.
According to Kaur, the police has sent Dhiman’s phone for forensic testing to find out how long the sexual assaults have been going on, or if they happened at the SD National School in Passiwal or Nangran. “The accused confessed to us that he did sexually assault students he gave private tuitions to in 2010. We’re investigating to determine if he has been exploiting his present students too,” she said.
Dhiman’s two-storeyed, co-educational school, which stands in the middle of Nangran village, was closed when ThePrint visited Saturday. While the ground floor has about eight rooms, most of the classrooms on the first floor are still under construction. A dilapidated yellow bus, with four punctured tyres, stood in the middle of a playground, with a few rusty swings that no one seems to have used in years.
A secondary school, it offers education till class 10. But Dhiman is said to have used the school premises to give private tuitions to girls studying in classes 11 and 12 under the open school system.
The police is unsure of the number of students enrolled at the school, said Kaur.
Ex-student recalls incident
Meanwhile, a 33-year-old former student of Dhiman’s Passiwal school, Ravi Kumar, alleged the principal always came across as a creep, who would “touch” the girls.
According to Ravi Kumar, the school had a “dingy room” where files were kept and fees were collected. It had racks full of files, two small beds and a computer. Students weren’t allowed inside, he claimed.
Kumar recalled an incident from 2005, when he claimed he had seen Dhiman entering into the room with a student after school hours.
“It was October 2005. I had forgotten my cricket bat at school and went back at 7 pm to get it. I saw Dhiman, a teacher, and a student in a school. They looked flustered when they saw me and my friend and asked us to leave and take the bat from the school the next day,” he alleged.
Kumar claimed, however, that he wanted his bat desperately and sneaked into the school again to retrieve it.
“I saw the teacher escort the girl into the dingy room. The teacher then left. Dhiman then appeared and went inside the room. I was curious so I stayed there. The girl and Dhiman reappeared after half an hour or so,” Kumar claimed. “All the teachers knew what was happening. They didn’t do anything because if they said anything, they ran the risk of losing their job,” he alleged.
Kumar says he didn’t inform anyone at the time because he didn’t understand the gravity of the situation, and also feared that if he opened his mouth he’d be expelled.
The former student, who now works in Una, hasn’t shared his statement with the police even now.
Blame on political connections
Residents of Passiwal and Nangran villages alleged they had twice complained to legislators Madan Mohan Mittal of the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2012 & Congress’ Rana K.P. Singh in 2016, but neither of them took any action. They claimed they had handed over the footage on a CD to both Rana and Mittal, but they didn’t take any action.
Mittal, now with the Akali Dal, denied knowledge of the alleged harassment. “Nobody told me anything. Plus, the accused is a Congressi, why would I protect him? I think what he’s done is inhuman, and he should be punished in the strictest manner possible,” he told ThePrint over the phone.
Villagers alleged that Dhiman was a long-serving block panchayat leader of the Congress and was Rana K.P. Singh’s right-hand man. But Rana said Dhiman has never been formally associated with Congress party or held any positions.
“At crowded places, anyone can come and click pictures with leaders. That doesn’t mean they’re my right-hand men. I had never even heard of this man before today, let alone know of his actions,” Rana told ThePrint over the phone. “The teacher should be given the harshest punishment possible to set an example.”
When villagers were asked why they didn’t go to the police directly, they didn’t give a clear answer, and blamed everything on “political pressure”. Meanwhile, the women who faced the alleged assault by Dhiman have had to live with it for over a decade, and the leaking of the videos has only re-opened their wounds.
Complainant Ashwani Kumar claimed that after all these years of looking away, the villagers now want inquiry of the “highest level”. “I’m telling you, this is a big sex scandal. Dhiman wasn’t operating alone. An inquiry should take place as to how he exploited so many girls and why,” he said.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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