2 teachers cleared in sex abuse case
Acquitted By Court After 5-Year Trial
Srikkanth.D@timesgroup.com 23.04.2018.
Chennai: After a trial lasting five years, a mahila court acquitted two teachers of Chengalpet Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School, 50km from the city, of the charge of sexually abusing schoolchildren between 2011 and 2013.
The court examined charges of sexual abuse that the police had booked the teachers under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Pocso) for, along with charges of criminal intimidation for allegedly threatening the students to reduce marks in practical exams if they complained about the abuse, before giving them a clean chit.
One of the accused teachers was a recipient of the state government’s ‘Nallasiriyar’ award.
Sessions judge P Velmurugan of the Chengalpet mahila court found the two teachers G Nagaraj, 57, and GPugazhendi, 52, not guilty of the charges.
Picking several holes in the prosecution’s case, the sessions judge observed, “If the teachers had actually [been involved] in abuse from 2011 till 2013, the students would have complained to their parents then and there and not have waited for two years.”
The judge chided the police for not including,with the charges of the complainants, statements from other students. The judge concluded that the students’ class teacher, Mythili, had implicated the teachers in a false case.
In 2013, when the accusations first came to light, protests erupted outside the school and an FIR was registered on January 21, 2013. Nagaraj and Pugazhendi — chemistry and physics teachers respectively — had been accused of inappropriate behaviour. The school education department temporarily suspended both teachers before eventually reinstating them.
The teachers surrendered before the Madras high court in April 2013 and received bail. Meanwhile, two teachers, Jayaseela,who taught mathematics, and Saraswathi, a science teacher, appeared in the trial court to depose on behalf of the accused teachers.
According to their statements, Viswanathan, who had served as the headmaster in the same school since 2011, was suspended in 2012 after students and teachers protested against him. “Viswanathan believed that the two teachers were responsible for his suspension and said he would take revenge on them,” Jayaseela’s statement said.
One of the students who had complained against the teachers turned hostile and informed the judge that their class teacher had influenced them on Viswanathan’s directions. Of eight students who filed a complaint with the Chengalpet police, four turned hostile, leading to the teachers being acquitted of the charges.
Acquitted By Court After 5-Year Trial
Srikkanth.D@timesgroup.com 23.04.2018.
Chennai: After a trial lasting five years, a mahila court acquitted two teachers of Chengalpet Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School, 50km from the city, of the charge of sexually abusing schoolchildren between 2011 and 2013.
The court examined charges of sexual abuse that the police had booked the teachers under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Pocso) for, along with charges of criminal intimidation for allegedly threatening the students to reduce marks in practical exams if they complained about the abuse, before giving them a clean chit.
One of the accused teachers was a recipient of the state government’s ‘Nallasiriyar’ award.
Sessions judge P Velmurugan of the Chengalpet mahila court found the two teachers G Nagaraj, 57, and GPugazhendi, 52, not guilty of the charges.
Picking several holes in the prosecution’s case, the sessions judge observed, “If the teachers had actually [been involved] in abuse from 2011 till 2013, the students would have complained to their parents then and there and not have waited for two years.”
The judge chided the police for not including,with the charges of the complainants, statements from other students. The judge concluded that the students’ class teacher, Mythili, had implicated the teachers in a false case.
In 2013, when the accusations first came to light, protests erupted outside the school and an FIR was registered on January 21, 2013. Nagaraj and Pugazhendi — chemistry and physics teachers respectively — had been accused of inappropriate behaviour. The school education department temporarily suspended both teachers before eventually reinstating them.
The teachers surrendered before the Madras high court in April 2013 and received bail. Meanwhile, two teachers, Jayaseela,who taught mathematics, and Saraswathi, a science teacher, appeared in the trial court to depose on behalf of the accused teachers.
According to their statements, Viswanathan, who had served as the headmaster in the same school since 2011, was suspended in 2012 after students and teachers protested against him. “Viswanathan believed that the two teachers were responsible for his suspension and said he would take revenge on them,” Jayaseela’s statement said.
One of the students who had complained against the teachers turned hostile and informed the judge that their class teacher had influenced them on Viswanathan’s directions. Of eight students who filed a complaint with the Chengalpet police, four turned hostile, leading to the teachers being acquitted of the charges.
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