55-year-old music teacher held for molesting minor student granted bail

A 55-year-old music teacher from Bangur Nagar in Goregaon, who was arrested on Sunday for allegedly molesting his minor student between 2007 and 2010, was granted bail on Monday by a metropolitan magistrate’s court.

The former student, now 22, was traumatised by the incident and underwent therapy in the United States (US) from 2015 to 2019. Her parents learned about the incident only recently from her doctor, following which the family returned to the city to file a police complaint against the accused, identified as Bharat Panchal.

The accused denied allegations against him. “I completely deny the allegations levelled on me. I have a clean character and you can ask any of my students about me. I have faith in our law system,” he told HT.

According to Oshiwara police, when the woman was between nine and 12 years old, Panchal would visit her home every week to give guitar lessons. The complaint filed by the woman’s parents stated when the woman’s parents would go to work, they would ask their domestic help to be present at home during the lessons. “During the period, her mother began observing behavioural changes in her – she would get jittery at times or would cry in her sleep. The woman’s mother also said she would seem happy on the days the accused did not come to their home for guitar lessons,” the complaint filed at Oshiwara police station stated.

Later, the woman’s grades in school began getting affected, owing to which her parents changed her school in 2010. “When the woman was 12, she tried telling her mother about her ordeal but was unable to explain it properly,” an officer said.

In 2011, her parents relocated to the US, but there was no change in her state, following which her mother consulted a psychiatrist. “From 2015 to 2019, she underwent therapy and later narrated her ordeal to the psychiatrist,” the officer said. The woman’s father said, “The doctor took my daughter’s consent and informed us what she had revealed during her therapy.”

The family then returned to India to file the case.The woman in her statement to the police said Panchal repeatedly molested her between 2007 and 2010. “The accused would touch her inappropriately and used to show her obscene pictures on mobile phone and threatened against disclosing his actions to her parents,” the complaint stated. Based on the family’s complaint, the police arrested Panchal.