Alappuzha: Teacher accused of pocso charge faces arrest

ALAPPUZHA: The north police here has registered a case against a teacher of SDV Girls’ High School for sexual misconduct against a Class VI student. The accused S. Venu, 51, Sanskrit teacher, allegedly misbehaved with her during an awareness camp on ‘Our Responsibility to Children’ (ORC) held in the school in July. The project, aimed at developing skills in children, is jointly implemented by the social justice department and the district administration.

The PoCSO court (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) here had dismissed his bail plea on August 14. K.P. Vinod, circle inspector, north police, said that the accused will be arrested after getting certain clarifications.

The girl first reported the matter to the counsellor of District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) which recorded her statement and informed the District Child Welfare Committee (CWC).

It carried out a probe and prepared a report with the statements of four children and their parents. Based on the report, the police framed a PoCSO case after recording a statement under section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code (CRPC).

CWC member Naja said that they had done their job and it was for the police to act now.

However, Venu alleged that the case was fabricated by a few teachers in the school along with G. Manojkumar, chairman, standing committee (education) of Alappuzha municipality, and the school management.

He alleged that Hindi teacher Shiji Sivan had started a character assassination against him at the beginning of this academic year by persuading students to switch from Sanskrit to Malayalam. He sent a legal notice to her and in retaliation she conspired to raise the sexual assault case against him, he added.

Meanwhile, Manojkumar denied the charge and said the issue was brought to his notice as chairman of the education standing committee during the ORC camp.

He reported it to the competent authorities, including I.G. Vijayan who heads the state-level campaign of ORC, he said.

“The law will take its own course,” said Sivasubrahmanyam, one of the members in the SDV Trust.

Venu had been accused of a similar offence in July last year by a Class V student.

Venu filed a defamation suit against the management following which manager N. Neelakandan, 57, was replaced earlier this year.