Chennai:
Police in Tamil Nadu’s Cuddalore district have arrested a government school teacher for allegedly sexually abusing girl students. Investigators say a parent filed a complaint over the incident that reportedly took place during a special coaching camp for high-achieving students.
A senior police officer told NDTV at least 20 girls had confirmed ‘bad touch’, or inappropriate physical contact reported by a child, during the investigation. The teacher – who received a prior warning from the school for inappropriate conduct with girl students – was subsequently arrested under the strict anti-child sexual abuse law POCSO, or Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
The arrest comes amid a disturbing rise in sexual assaults in schools and colleges across Tamil Nadu, beginning with the attack on a woman student on the campus of Chennai’s Anna University.
Among the more recent such incidents, three teachers from state-run schools in Krishnagiri district were arrested and, a few days ago, three teenage boys were arrested for the alleged sexual assault and abuse of a younger girl student on the campus of a school.
READ | 3 Tamil Nadu Teens Arrested For Alleged Sexual Assault Of Junior
The number of such attacks has led to the opposition AIADMK claiming a decline in the law and order situation in the state, which will vote in an Assembly election next year.
READ | Top Chennai Cop Suspended Over Sexual Abuse Claim By Woman Cop
Today (i.e., Tuesday), the AIADMK is holding a protest in Chennai on this issue.
Meanwhile, the ruling DMK has flatly denied any talk of a law-and-order crisis, pointing to the number of such sexual assault complaints as proof survivors have confidence in the current government’s ability to bring the guilty to justice.
Law Minister S Regupathy recently said, “All suspects have been caught. They are being brought to justice… unlike the previous AIADMK regime in which survivors in the Pollachi sexual abuse case were too scared to even give a police complaint and a case was filed after two weeks.”
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