Baisinga/Betnoti: After evading police for almost a month, a government upper primary school teacher was finally arrested on the charges of molesting minor female students in his class in Betnoti block of Odisha's Mayurbhanj district on Tuesday. He had been suspended with immediate effect when allegations against him had surfaced.

The accused was identified as Pramod Kumar Mahanta, a senior teacher at Pratimadeipur government upper primary school which comes under Baisinga police limits in the block. He was arrested in the afternoon on Tuesday basing on a complaint filed by the school headmistress last month. 

As per the complaint, Mahanta used to repeatedly molest over 7-8 minor girls in his class on the pretext of showing affection until one of them opened up to her family about the ordeal. To avoid being caught, he exercised his social networking and money to reach a settlement lest any girl should speak up.  When the allegations surfaced, Betnoti block education officer had immediately placed him under suspension under the orders of the district administratio. However, a formal complaint was filed by the school headmistress a week later on July 28. 

Acting on it, Baisinga police immediately registered a case and started investigation. A team of police raided the accused teacher's house but he managed to escape and is even said to have moved the High Court seeking anticipatory bail. After a long chase of over a month, he was finally arrested on Tuesday.

Police confirmed his arrest and said the accused teacher has been booked under releavnt sections of the BNS and POCSO Act. "He has been produced in court after medical examination as per the legal procedure," they informed.