Tiruchirapalli (Tamil Nadu): The Manapparai all women police station in Tiruchirapaplli district arrested five people, including a trustee of a private CBSE school for allegedly sexually harassing a nine-year-old girl student, police said in a release.
The school trustee J Vasanth (54) who is the husband of school correspondent V Sudha sexually assaulted the victim, a Class 4 student in the classroom on Thursday evening.
The girl informed her parents about the incident after reaching home.
Irate over the heinous act, the victim’s family members and relatives besides locals ransacked the school, assaulted Vasanth and then blocked the vehicular movement on the Tiruchirapalli-Dindigul national highway late on Thursday triggering a tense situation.
Superintendent of police S Selvanagarathinam rushed to the spot and pacified the agitators of taking stern action against the culprits and restored normalcy.
Based on the complaint from the victim’s parents, the police on Friday registered a case under sections 9(f), 9(m), 10, 19 and 21 (i) of the POCSO Act, 2012 and arrested the prime accused Vasanth, besides Sudha, school secretary M Marachi, deputy secretary M Elanchezhiyan and principal P Jayalakshmi for failing to report the incident to the police.
Later, all the five arrested were produced before N S Srivathsan, Sessions Judge, Mahila Court, here who granted conditional bail to Sudha, Marachi, Elanchezhiyan and Jayalakshmi, while the prime accused Vasanth was remanded to judicial custody till February 21.
A detailed investigation is underway to find out whether there were any similar complaints against the accused, the release added.
