Meanwhile, a 46-year-old teacher at a government school in the Tumakuru district was arrested for allegedly misbehaving with girl students.
Sexual Harassment Representational Image
A 59-year-old headmaster and an attender — a Group-D employee — of a government school in the Mysuru district are on the run from the cops after being accused of sexual harassment of minor girl students of the school during a school trip in late November.
The Antharasanthe police in the HD Kote taluk of the Hunsur sub-division of Mysuru have registered a case under appropriate sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act following a complaint from the child development project officer (CDPO) of the cluster of schools in the taluk.
The CDPO conducted a detailed inquiry with the students involved, their parents, and teachers. The officer then submitted a report to the Education Department, which then issued suspension orders for both the headmaster and the attender.
According to the police, the school organised a five-day educational trip to several tourist locations in Karnataka — including the Murudeshwara temple and the Yana volcanic rocks — late in November.
Students from Standard 7 to Standard 10 — 20 boys and 30 girls — went on the trip, accompanied by three male teachers and two female teachers.
After the trip, a few girl students complained to their parents that one of the attenders touched them inappropriately while they were travelling inside the bus and later walking on the beach.
Enraged by this, the parents gathered before the school in the first week of December and created a ruckus, demanding the headmaster take stern action against the attender.
Education Department officials, headed by the local block education officer (BEO), and the CDPO rushed to the school on being informed about the incident.
They conducted a detailed inquiry, after which the department suspended the headmaster and the principal for the offences as well as attempts to hush up the matter.
The CDPO then filed a complaint with the Antharsanthe police, who registered a case under the POCSO Act after recording the statements of the girl students. They also invoked Section 161 of the CrPC.
“The honourable court will once again record the statements of the girl students under Section 164 of the CrPC. Our men have definite clues on where the accused are, and we will apprehend them soon,” a senior police officer told South First.
In another incident, a 46-year-old teacher at a government school in the Tumakuru district was arrested after he allegedly misbehaved with girl students.
He has also been suspended from service by the BEO, who conducted an inquiry into the incident.
According to the Badavanahalli police, a few students complained to their parents about the misconduct of the male teacher.
The enraged parents approached the elders of the village panchayat. This, even as other villagers were waiting to give a sound thrashing to the accused teacher, identified as one Manjunath.
The matter was brought before the school’s BEO, who conducted a detailed inquiry and found the allegations of the victims credible.
The BEO then suspended Manjunath and filed a complaint with the Badavanahalli police, who registered a case of sexual harassment and arrested the teacher.
Manjunath was produced before a magistrate and was remanded in judicial custody, a senior police officer told South First.
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