Feb 16, 2012: 68-year-old teacher held for raping 12-year-old student

TNN | Feb 16, 2012, 02.10AM IST

BANGALORE: Police took into custody on Wednesday a 68-year-old teacher of a school run by the Karnataka Nair Service Society ( KNSS) in Dooravaninagar after he was accused of raping his 12-year-old student. The teacher and victim were sent for medical examination.

The girl complained to her mother, identified as Mary, on returning home from school on Tuesday evening. She told her mother that the teacher had been misbehaving with her for a long time. Parents and guardians of several students came to the school on Wednesday morning and fought with the school management on this issue. Around 9.30am, they even threw stones at the building and smashed several window glasses.

KR Puram police inspector VK Vasudev rushed to the school and took the teacher Krishnamurthy, into custody. He was booked under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code. "It is a grave matter. The teacher was appointed after his retirement and there were no black marks in his career. We'll come to a conclusion based on medical reports," assistant commissioner of police (KR Puram) D Narayanaswamy told TOI.

Attempt to tarnish our image: school

A school management spokeperson told TOI the incident had been blown out of proportion by local political leaders. "Ours is an English medium school catering to weaker sections of the society as it has affordable fees. We offer Kannada as the second language. Some schools in the area are commercially exploiting parents. They wanted to disgrace the school. All our teachers, except for Krishnamurthy, are women. He was reappointed after superannuation as mathematics teacher as he had an unblemished career in our school," the spokesperson said.

Schools or sites of harassment?

The case of the mathematics teacher allegedly raping his student in Dooravaninagar is the third such incident in recent times.

Last week, another maths teacher of a government school near Bellary was arrested for allegedly raping a Class VII girl. He forced the girl to stay back every day after class hours and raped her. Finally, she fled from the school during one such assault and narrated her plight to a friend, who alerted the headmaster.

Last month, Paul Meekin, former headmaster of Trio World School, was arrested for allegedly forcing a student to discuss sex with him. Meekin also allegedly posted lewd messages to the boy on social networking sites.

A probe by the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights found that Meekin was allegedly getting children to his chambers frequently. It was also alleged he took a boy with him to a tour of Goa.

He was arrested and released on bail. It turned out that Meekin had given a false name and identity details while obtaining the job. Police arrested Meekin again and he is currently in Parappana Agrahara Central Jail. Local police are awaiting the arrival of British police to proceed in the case.

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