After more than a dozen former and current students complained about being sexually harassed by a teacher of a school in Chennai, the police arrested the teacher, G Rajagopalan on Monday night. They also seized his laptop and mobile phone for investigation. The accused was arrested by Ashok Nagar All Women Police Station (AWPS) on Monday night, after he was questioned by the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crimes against women and children) Jayalakshmi. As soon as complaints against the teacher began to pile up, Jayalakshmi and her team went to the school to conduct an investigation on the issue. They then brought the teacher, his wife and his mother to the Vadapalani police station to question them and also seized the teacher’s laptop and mobile phone.
The police also involved the cybercrime division to retrieve the data that the teacher had deleted from his devices. After questioning, the Ashok Nagar police arrested him on Monday night. “He was arrested last night and then after conducting all the COVID-19 protocols, we will remand him today,” Jayalakshmi told TNM. Deputy Commissioner Jayalakshmi also requested students to come forward to file complaints against the teacher and gave her mobile number for the same. Rajagopalan has been arrested under section 11 and 12 (Sexual harassment of children) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012, sections 354(A) (Sexual harassment) and 509 (Insulting modesty of woman) of IPC and sections 67 (Punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) and 67A (Punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc., in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.
It all started on Sunday evening after a former student of PSBB school and model Kripali posted a screenshot of a student who shared her experience of sexual harassment at the hands of the teacher. The story went viral and soon after, tens of students — both former and current — came forward to share their own traumatic experiences with the teacher. Some even said that he came to online classes dressed only in a towel and a few students also highlighted that their complaints to the management were not given attention to. Though the school first denied having received any complaint about the teacher it said that it was taking suo motu cognisance of the issue. After pressure from the media, politicians and over 1000 alumni, the school suspended the teacher on Monday pending investigation.
Rajagopalan