Siblings, father booked over sexual assault plaint

‘Parent forced them to accuse teachers’

A day after the principal and three teachers of a school in Coimbatore were booked on charges of sexually assaulting a Class XI student and his younger brother, the police on Monday registered a case against the boys and their father, based on a counter petition filed by the school’s principal in-charge.

The Class XI student, on whose complaint the principal and three teachers were booked, had been placed under suspension on December 13, after he used his mobile phone in class the previous day. The boy had complained that the principal and the three teachers had sexually assaulted him and his brother on the pretext of frisking them on December 12.

The police said the boy had trespassed into the school on Monday and, along with his brother, prevented the principal from discharging his duty. According to the police, the students’ father allegedly instigated them.

A section of parents and students on Tuesday met Coimbatore MP P.R. Natarajan and submitted a petition seeking the transfer of the siblings from the school. They accused the boys of having lodged a false complaint against the principal and the teachers. They also submitted a petition to Coimbatore Superintendent of Police Sujit Kumar, seeking the withdrawal of the case against the principal and the teachers.

A parent, whose daughter is a classmate of the 15-year-old boy, told The Hindu that it was the siblings’ father who forced them to lodge a false complaint against the principal and the teachers.

“The father of the siblings had slapped a female teacher after she complained of his elder son’s poor academic performance during a PTA meeting last year. The teacher and two others (the three teachers who were booked on the basis of the boy’s complaint on Sunday) submitted a petition to the then Air Officer Commanding at the Air Force Station, Sulur, against the parent as he is a non-commissioned IAF officer. An inquiry was conducted against him, the final orders of which are awaited,” he said.

Another parent said the Class XI boy had been accused of using his mobile phone in class, for which he was searched by male student representatives on December 12, and not by teachers. “The phone was found in his innerwear, following which the principal placed him under suspension. Contrary to the student’s complaint, the principal was attending an audit meeting at his chamber at the time of the search, for which there is CCTV footage. While one of the three teachers he had accused of having frisked him was on leave, another does not take classes for high school and higher secondary students,” the parent said.

On Monday, the siblings were produced before the District Child Welfare Committee and sent to a home for children, as their parents refused to take them home, the police said.

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