Ghaziabad, Oct 18 (IANS): The Ghaziabad Police arrested a teacher for sexually assaulting a class XI student of a prestigious public school in Modinagar town here.

The police said that teacher Sanjay Agrawal was arrested Friday night following a protest by students outside the police station.

The students complained that Agrawal who teaches in Chhaya Public School also runs a coaching institute from his Harmukhpuri residence where they used to attend classes.

The students alleged that the teacher used to ask the victim to come 10 minutes earlier than others so he could monitor her performance. Under this pretext, he used to touch her.

The student initially could not muster courage as she feared the man, also a teacher in her school.

However, when she narrated her ordeal to her classmates, the students also reached early and caught Agrawal red-handed. They thrashed him before taking him to the police station.

The police registered a case under sections 354 (b) of the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

"We have arrested the accused and investigation has been initiated in the case," said Jagdish Sharma, SP Rural of Ghaziabad.

Chhaya Public School chairman Akhilesh Dwivedi said: "We have suspended the teacher after we found him to be involved in such a crime."