Child Sexual Abuse: High Court reverses Two Teachers' Acquittal

In a rare reversal of a trial court order, the Madras HC set aside acquittal of two male teachers of Chengalpet govt girls' higher secondary school & found them guilty of sexually abusing school children. Passing the orders, Justice P Velmurugan also directed police to secure the guilty teachers - G Nagaraj, 57, & G Pugazhendi - & produce them in court on Feb 25, when the quantum of jail term will be pronounced.

At least eight girls lodged complaint with the Chengalpet police, narrating the teachers' inappropriate behaviour & sexual harassment from 2011 till 2013. Four of them, however, turned hostile while deposing before the trial judge. One of the guilty teachers was a recipient of the State govt's Best Teacher (Nallasiriyar) award. In Apr 2018, the Chengalpet Mahila Court acquitted the teachers after accepting the arguments by their counsel that the charges against them were framed by another teacher working in the same school at the insistence of a former headmaster & that the students had been forced to lodge the complaints against the two.

Of the eight students who filed a complaint with the Chengelpet police initially, four turned hostile. One students had told the Judge had said their class teacher had influenced them into complaining against the two teachers on directions from a former headmaster.

Nagaraj & Pugazhendi, who taught Chemistry & Physics respectively in the school, were accused of inappropriate behaviour since 2011. In 2013, when the accusations first came to light, protests erupted outside the school & a First Information Report (FIR) was registered on Jan 21, 2013. The school education department temporarily suspended both the teachers before reinstating them eventually.

Apart from charges of sexual abuse for which they were booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, they were also booked for criminal intimidation for allegedly threatening the students saying they would reduce marks in practical exams if they dared to complain about their behaviour.

Finding several holes in the prosecution's case, the sessions Judge had observed that if the teachers had actually indulged in abuse since 2011 until 2013, the students would have complained to their parents then & there & wouldn't have waited for two years.

Parents of one of the victims appealed against the lower court's order & when the petition came up before Justice Velmurugan, he quashed the acquittal after observing that the trial court had erred in acquitting the accused.

(The victim's identity hasn't been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)

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