An unpleasant case of child abuse was reported from Tumakuru district of Karnataka, where a 40-year-old government school teacher Devarajaiah was accused of forcing his girl students to watch pornographic material.
According to police, Devarajaiah used to force Class 6 and 7 girl students to watch pornographic videos on his mobile phone. He allegedly used to show them video clippings and also physically assaulted the girls if they refused to watch.
The incident came to light when a local television channel reported the incident on Thursday. Police said that the Block Education Officer (BEO) Mahesh and jurisdictional police visited the school immediately to record statements from the students. A FIR has been filed on the basis of their complaint.
Reports reveal that Devarajaiah was a habitual offender. A senior police official told a media house that there are five sexual offence cases registered against him in Kyatasandra police station limits.
"We have now found that he is a history-sheeter after getting details of all cases against him. All these cases were registered five years ago between 2012 and 2013. He has been earlier accused of outraging the modesty of women, and the others are also sexual assault cases. We are verifying the complaints in these cases. In all cases, the chargesheet has been submitted to court," the official said.
Police suspect that since the accused already knew about the movement in the case, he absconded on time. "When we went to the school immediately after seeing the media report, be had by then gone off, otherwise we would have been able to nab the teacher then and there," Tumakuru SP Divya Gopinath said.
According to Mahesh, BEO, Devarajaiah was allegedly showing pornographic videos to school girls for the last eight months.
A few parents had earlier informed what transpired at the school to the School Development and Management Committee (SDMC) several times but the headmaster just warned the teacher and let him go, alerting the BEO and the police.
"The teacher was given a warning for at least three times in the past eight months, but he did not rectify his behaviour," BEO Mahesh said.
On questioning if action would be taken against school for failing to report the incident, Mahesh said, "As far as we understand, the headmaster was kept in the dark about the allegations. The president of SDMC is a parent and he had warned the teacher three times, but did not report it to the headmaster or the police."
Tumakuru SP Divya Gopinath said a detailed inquiry will be initiated to know the truth. Devarajaiah, who worked in the school for over a year used to teach general subjects to students of the upper primary school.
"There are allegations that the students had previously approached the committee to complain against the teacher, but the teacher was let off after a warning. We need to initiate an inquiry to look into this aspect. If the school principal already knew about the abuse, then they are liable to inform the police about it, which they haven't done. This is a serious offence and we can take action against the school for lapses," the SP said.
Devarajaiah was booked on Thursday and he was suspended by Deputy Director of Public Instruction of Madhugiri Educational District K J Rajendra. He added that neither did the BEO receive any complaint nor did any parent approach DDPI on the matter.
"According to the students, the offence had been going on for many months, but we did not receive any complaints on this. Else, we would have taken action against the teacher. Now, he has been suspended pending enquiry," Rajendra told a media house.
