DNA
Sex sting op may have been staged
Puneet Nicholas Yadav
Friday, September 07, 2007 11:32 IST
Delhi police have not found evidence against the teacher
NEW DELHI: A week after a TV channel’s sting operation insinuated that Uma Khurana — a Delhi government-school teacher — pushed students into prostitution, investigators have indicated that no evidence has been found to support the accusation.
The Delhi police crime branch is looking into the possibility that Khurana, employed at the Daryaganj branch of Government Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, might have been framed by the channel’s reporter.
A senior officer told DNA that the crime branch has evidence to believe that Prakash Singh, the reporter, had plotted the expose at the behest of one Virendra Arora. Khurana apparently owes a large sum of money to Arora. Khurana has reportedly told the police that Arora had provided the girl shown in the sting.
A source in the crime branch said that the girl was neither a student nor a prostitute, but a part-time journalist from Noida.
“When we questioned the girl, she said that she was a journalist and that she had known Singh. Singh had asked the girl to help him with a ‘mock’ sting operation and she knew nothing about the actual plot,” the source said. “She said that Singh had told her to act as a student being forced into prostitution.” The police are protecting the identity of the girl.
The police have also found another witness to the plot. “Khurana owed money to this man too and Arora wanted his help in the sting,” the source said.
“But this man refused to play a part, and said that he wanted his money back but not through such means.” The source said that the girl and the unnamed man are now the prime witnesses in the case.
Khurana, who has spent the last week in police custody, may be let off once the investigations are over. Arora was remanded to custody four days ago. As for Singh, who has been repeatedly questioned, the police have indicated that charges such as abetment to rioting and cheating may be framed against him. Charges may also be framed against Live India, the channel that aired the sting, the source said. It may be recalled that a mob of about 300 angry parents had gone on a rampage near the school after the channel aired the episode.
The police said that they are in the final stage of investigations and will solve the case in a day or two.


DNA
80 per cent students want sex education: Survey
PTI
Saturday, September 08, 2007 16:24 IST

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: 80 per cent of students welcome sex education in schools as they believe it would help them interact better with opposite sex, a survey conducted among students here have shown.
About 58 per cent prefer co-education in sex education classes and 33 per cent underwent sex education from school, said the study conducted among 452 students from four selected schools by ‘Thrani’, the counselling centre of Foundation for Integrated Research For Mental Health.
The outcome could be generalised for whole of the state as questions asked were of common pattern concerned with thinking of students, V Mukunda Das, Dean, Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management- Kerala, said while releasing the study.
Stating that results were disturbing in many aspects, Das said most of the children were victims of sexual abuse in one form or the other and 88 per cent believe sex education would protect them from sexual abuse.
Nearly 31 per cent of the survey participants had been sexually abused at some point of time, Das said adding ‘this is a pointer towards a critical social reality’.
Majority of the students lacked proper knowledge about sexually transmitted disease, HIV Aids, he said.

DNA
Sept 9th, 2007
Watchman charged with rape
Police on Thursday registered a case of cape against a 35 year old watchman for allegedly raping a 15 year old girl in Dongri. The victim used to work as a maid with Rupendra alias Rajendra who allegedly threatened her with dire consequences before raping her on Aug27, 2007, police said. Fed up with the mental torture, she lodged a complaint with the Dongri police station and was kept at the Dongri remand home after medical examination at JJ Hospital. The police are on the lookout for the watchman.