The district collector also ordered action against five female teachers of the school who tried to defend the headmaster. (Representational image)

Bhopal: In a shocking incident of sexual abuse in the name of teaching, a headmaster of a school in Chhattisgarh district was arrested for touching girl students inappropriately under the pretext of explaining “magnetism”, the police said on Wednesday.

Ajey Shukla, headmaster of a school in district headquarters town of Rajnandgaon, was arrested on Tuesday on charges of molestation of girls of the school after the alleged victims took up the matter with local district collector Bheem Singh.

Twenty-three girls of Classses 6, 7 and 8 met the district collector to narrate their ordeals, the police said.

“The victims narrated how the headmaster was putting his hand under their shirts on the pretext of explaining magnetism,” the police quoted the victims as saying to the district collector.

The district collector also ordered action against five female teachers of the school who tried to defend the headmaster, dubbing the charges against him as lies, the police said.