The Chennai police arrested G Rajaopalan, a teacher from the Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan (PSBB) after several students accused him of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour with students.

Social media platforms, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram on Sunday and Monday were flooded with screenshots of students from the K K Nagar branch of PSBB school sharing instances of students being asked inappropriate questions laced with sexual connotations, remarked about their appearances, slut-shamed in classrooms and molested.

The Ashok Nagar Police all women police arrested him in the early hours of Tuesday morning following allegations made by the alumni. He appeared before the magistrate and is currently in judicial custody.

He has been arrested under Section 11 and 12 of the POCSO Act. A person is arrested under Section 11 of the POCSO act while committing sexual harassment by uttering words, showcasing his body or in other forms while under Section 12, anyone committing sexual harassment shall be punished with imprisonment.

He has been booked for other offences categorised under IPC Act 354 (a) (Sexual Harassment and punishment for sexual harassment) and 509 (intending to insult the modesty of any woman by uttering words, making any sound or gesture, or exhibiting any object); under IT Act section 67 and 67(a) (That involves punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in the electronic form).  

The incident came to light after a fashion model Kripali took to Instagram to share posts of one of the student’s experiences and called other students to come forward if they had faced something similar. On Sunday and Monday, she collated screenshots of conversations with several alumni and shared the same. This was followed by an open letter to the management by the alumni association.

The alumni sought that the teacher be suspended, be stopped from all academic activities and also asked the school to ensure that legal action was taken against him.

CASTEIST TURN OF EVENTS

Twitter was also replete with posts and comments about the school’s alleged inclination towards Brahminical ideology while forums addressing issues of the marginalized communities and women had discussions pertaining the same.

Meanwhile, in a public forum discussion that took place late on Monday night, Madhuvanthi Arun (Madhuvanthii on Twitter), an actor and granddaughter of the founder of the school Rajalakshmi Parthasarathy was invited to talk regarding the incident where she clarified that like most thought, she was not a trustee of the school.

“I am an alumnus as much as any other alumni of the school and if you note. The person who has made the mistake has to be brought to task and there is no two ways about it. I am not ashamed of being an alumnus of the school, or an educationist or the granddaughter of YGP. I am ashamed that a teacher in a school that I studied in has done something like this and he has to be brought to books but. But having said that I am not ashamed to call myself a Hindu or brahmin and I certainly will not tolerate Hindu or Brahmin bashing on the pretext of trying to talk about feminism. I am sorry this is my answer,” she said in the forum.

 Source: Twitter, TNIE

Also read: PSBB Chennai teacher accused of sexual harassment, students demand action