A 50-year-old teacher was arrested by the Coimbatore police for allegedly sexually harassing female students. The accused S Natarajan, has been working as a science teacher for Classes 6 and 8 at a government school near Annur for the last 23 years.
According to the police, Natarajan touched a Class 7 student inappropriately in the school. When the student took up the issue with higher authorities, he also allegedly threatened her with dire consequences if she pursued the case. Since the school’s authorities did not take any action against Natarajan despite a complaint from the student, her parents approached the Thudiyalur All Women’s Police Station and filed a complaint on Saturday.
According to the complaint filed by the victim’s father, the student had informed about the incident to another student, a class representative, who reportedly said that she too had been at the receiving end of such misbehaviour. As the two girls took the issue up with a female teacher in the school, she reportedly advised them to submit their complaint at the complaint box installed in the school premises. Following this, an inquiry was held and the students were allegedly forced to withdraw their complaint.
The Thudiyalur police registered an FIR under sections 7 (sexual assault) and 8 (punishment for sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and arrested the teacher. He has been remanded to judicial custody in Coimbatore Central Prison. As per reports, police suspect that at least six students might have faced harassment at the hands of Natarajan and have also roped in Child Welfare Committee to provide counselling and support to the affected students.
Recently, police had booked the principal and three teachers of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Sulur for allegedly sexually harassing two male students. According to the police, the boys were harassed on the pretext of frisking to check if they had mobile phones on them.
(This article has been published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)
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