<p>According to the girl, one day, the headmaster forced himself onto her at her residence when her mother was out for work. Then, in Oct, he invited her to his son's flat, where he again allegedly raped her. The headmaster allegedly had threatened to harm the girl and her mother if she told anyone.</p> — According to the girl, one day, the headmaster forced himself onto her at her residence when her mother was out for work. Then, in Oct, he invited her to his son’s flat, where he again allegedly raped her. The headmaster allegedly had threatened to harm the girl and her mother if she told anyone.

Kolhapur: A 55-year-old headmaster of a school in Kolhapur’s Kagal tehsil was arrested on charges of raping a 16-year-old girl twice, once in Aug and another time in Oct, 2025, at her residence and in a flat owned by his son, respectively.

The girl passed out from the school after Class X in March 2025 and lived with her single mother in Kolhapur. According to the preliminary investigation, the headmaster visited the girl’s house on the pretext of asking about her ailing mother, but made overtures. According to the girl, one day, the headmaster forced himself onto her at her residence when her mother was out for work. Then, in Oct, he invited her to his son’s flat, where he again allegedly raped her. The headmaster allegedly had threatened to harm the girl and her mother if she told anyone.

Later, the girl did tell her mother, who then approached superintendent of police Yogeshkumar Gupta. The SP directed officials to record the girl’s statement and register the crime. Accordingly, the statement of the girl was recorded in the presence of the superintendent of police of the Women’s Assistance Cell.

The crime was registered based on the statement at the Juna Rajwada police station on Jan 12, and the accused was arrested the next day and produced before the court, which granted his custody till Jan 15.

Police invoked sections 64(1), 64(2), and 351(2) of the BNS; and sections 4, 6, and 12 of the stringent Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012; and the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. The headmaster was aware of the social profile of the girl.

Gupta had appointed city deputy SP Priya Patil to lead the investigation.