Gujarat teacher accused in rape case hiding in Odisha!

Bhubaneswar: Odisha School and Mass Education minister Samir Ranjan Dash on Tuesday said all district education officers have been asked to look out for a teacher of Gujarat, an accused in several cases of rape, who might be working in an educational institute in the state.

The state government recently received a letter from the CBI which informed that 49-year-old Dhavalkumar Hareshchandra Trivedi, a Gujarat-based teacher, might be hiding somewhere in Odisha.

The premier investigating agency suspect that Trivedi might be working in any coaching centre or educational institution in a remote part of Odisha as he is a good English teacher.

“We have received the letter from the CBI regarding the fugitive teacher who has been involved in a number of heinous crime like rape. The state government has already written letters to all the District Education Officers and Block Education Officers to trace the fugitive teacher if working in their areas,” Dash told reporters here Tuesday.

The minister said the department has also attached the identification of the accused teacher in the letter. All the educational institutions, both government and private ones, have also been informed about Trivedi, the minister said.

The CBI which is probing the case of kidnapping of a girl by Trivedi from Gujarat on August 11, 2018, informed the Odisha government that the accused teacher was earlier convicted with life imprisonment for his involvement in abduction of minor girls and women.

CBI said in the letter that Trivedi preferred small towns in remote areas of different states where he imparted tuition in English subject or get employed in school, and subsequently eloped with females and minor girls.

“He used a pseudonym of TDK Chandra during 2013-14, when he eloped with two minor girls. He used his different acronyms/pseudonyms. Earlier he used name TDK Chandra (Trivedi Dhaval Kumar Chandra), D Kumar, Dharmendra Kumar etc. He also got issued a fake election identity card and fake ration card from Kalka, Panchkula, Haryana,” the CBI said in the letter to Odisha government.

The CBI has taken over investigation in the case of a missing teenager who allegedly eloped with Trivedi, after he jumped parole on being sentenced to life for raping two minor girls. It was also alleged that on August 11 last year, the woman who was studying at a tuition centre run by Trivedi in Gujarat’s Surendranagar city eloped with him.

The Gujarat High Court handed over the case to the CBI on April 2 after the state police failed to trace the 18-year-old woman.

(PTI)