Two days after reports surfaced about the abuse of a Trio World School student on a popular social networking site by its headmaster Dr. Paul F Meekin, the police seems clueless about the whereabouts of the UK national, who was arrested on Friday and released on bail on Saturday by a local court on the understanding that he would cooperate with the police till the completion of the trial.
While the police has not been able to locate him at his home, a school official claims Dr Meeken has been in a private hospital in the city since Saturday night.
Dr Meekin who has been headmaster at Trio School since a year was suspended on Sunday after he was accused of seeking sexual favours from a 14 year old student. The boy's mother who allegedly came across chat messages from the headmaster to her son asking for sexual favours, complained to the police.
Dr Meekin who was picked up soon afterwards is giving the police some anxious moments now as he is not to be found anywhere.
“The headmaster did not return home or to the school after obtaining bail. He cannot escape from the country as his passport has been impounded, but he may have approached the British High Commission. It is too early to say that he has gone missing,” says DCP (North East), Ravikanthe Gowda.
The Kodigehalli police, investigating the case, is meanwhile hoping to get information from the school teachers and students on whether the headmaster had misbehaved with more of them.
"We are also going through Mr Meekin's Facebook account to check if there were other students on his friends’ list. We have collected all the vulgar messages sent to the 14-year-old boy’s Facebook account,” the police reveal.
But if the students had hoped for help from the state education department, they are likely to be disappointed as it sees the incident as a criminal case in which it has no role to play.
“CBSE/ICSE and international schools are answerable to their national/ international boards . The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) canot regulate or investigate them. The state has no power to even examine the case or recommend any disciplinary action," says Deputy Director of Department of Public Instruction (North) Mr. Chandraiah.
