In the tip, all it took was a Facebook publish to unravel many years of alleged sexual abuse of scholars in a college — a photograph posted by the alleged perpetrator himself to mark his retirement as a trainer.
On Friday, the trainer, who can be a CPM councillor in Kerala’s Malappuram district, was arrested on the cost of sexually abusing woman college students on the college the place he had labored for 30 years.
Police mentioned the accused retired in March this yr. CPM sources mentioned he has resigned from the publish of councillor on the occasion’s instructions. Protests had been additionally held in Malappuram by youth and girls’s teams, alleging that police had dragged their toes on arresting the CPM chief within the Left-ruled state.
Police sources mentioned seven complaints have been obtained so removed from former college students of the college.
“At present, we have registered only a single POCSO case, based on the complaint from a woman, who said the teacher had abused her when she was a junior student. In the other six complaints, the complainants are older,” mentioned a police officer in Malappuram.
“As per these complaints, the alleged sexual abuse occurred earlier than 2012, the yr the POCSO Act got here into impact. Hence, extra circumstances can be registered solely after acquiring authorized opinion,” the officer mentioned.
Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty mentioned his division would probe whether or not there had been any lapse on a part of the college administration in reporting the alleged abuse.
The state’s Director-General of Education Jeevan Babu has been directed to submit a report, Sivankutty mentioned.
According to police, the cost of sexual abuse emerged final month after trainer posted on Facebook {a photograph} of his retirement operate.
The first allegation was posted by a former scholar on her Facebook account, referring to the trainer’s retirement publish. In response to her allegation, different former college students wrote that that they had confronted related harassment from the trainer.
A number one advocate and social activist, who’s a consultant of the college’s alumni affiliation, mentioned the accused had “a strategy to target five to six girls in a class”. “He had taught junior courses throughout his profession. Our estimate is that he might need abused 400-500 college students throughout his profession,” the advocate advised reporters.
According to the advocate, the college administration took no motion regardless of a criticism filed with its Ethics Committee in 2019. “The academics stored silent when they need to have been serving to the scholars… many kids have not even realized that what occurred to them was abuse , she mentioned.
There was an try to file a police criticism however that was allegedly sabotaged, in line with the advocate.
“When college students had been advised in regards to the trainer, they had been scolded. The academics had been of the view that the scholars confronted such an expertise as a result of that they had flirted with the alleged accused. In two incidents, the survivors had been on the point of suicide. He had brutally abused among the college students. We have details about round 25 such incidents,” she mentioned.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
